Object of Affection
by awrestlinggod
Summary: Paul Levesque and Stephanie McMahon fall in love at first sight when they begin to work together in 1999. There are two problems; Paul is in a relationship and Stephanie's dad has no intention of seeing his daughter dating a wrestler.
1. Chapter 1

Paul 'Triple H' Levesque was standing backstage talking to his friend Sean 'X-Pac' Waltman the first time he saw her. His attention was attracted by the sound of his boss' voice as he spoke to another wrestler. Paul glanced in the direction of the voice and saw not only Vince McMahon but also next to him the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

As the pair walked past him he took in her stunning green eyes, her long, straight, brown hair, her shapely legs and her skirt and top, neither of which left much to the imagination. He felt a strange feeling in his chest that he hadn't experienced before as he watched them, specifically her disappear around the corner.

He finally noticed the sound of his friend clicking his fingers next to his head, "Hello? Paul? Hello? What planet are you orbiting around?"

He turned to Sean and asked, "Was that McMahon's daughter?"

He got a laugh in response, "No it's his sister you asshole, of course that's his daughter. Stephanie."

Paul didn't say anything. Sean laughed again, "Don't let Jo see you looking at her like that, she'll kill you." He was referring to Paul's girlfriend Joanie.

Paul still wasn't listening, "Why is she here?"

Sean sighed, "Why do you think she's here? You know the storyline they've got going on with the Undertaker terrorising McMahon and his family. She's probably going to debut tonight I'd guess."

Paul replied, "Right, of course." He couldn't get the image of her out of his mind. He wondered what was wrong him. He already had a girlfriend and he was truly in love with her. He shook his head to try and clear it and focus on the conversation before he looked even stranger in front of his friend.

* * *

><p>He spoke to her for the first time later that night. He had gone to fetch himself some coffee from the catering area. He was pouring himself a cup when suddenly she was next to him. She looked considerably different to the first time he had seen her. She had redone her makeup much more conservatively and was now wearing a blue jumper and cream pants.<p>

She spoke, her voice soft and shy, "You're Triple H, right?"

He finished pouring his cup of coffee and stepped aside so that she could take her turn, "Hi... yeh that's right... Paul."

She gave him a shy smile, "Stephanie McMahon, nice to meet you."

He thought the smile was beautiful as he noticed the way the sides of her nose creased slightly as she did it. He realised he'd left it a second too long before replying, "Nice to meet you. So... you're on the show tonight?"

She finished pouring a cup of coffee and started on a second, presumably for Vince, "Yeah, like my costume?"

He thought how much more he'd liked what she was wearing when he'd seen her earlier but replied, "It's uh... great."

She gave a little laugh, "No it isn't it's terrible. I need to look like a sweet, innocent little girl apparently."

He resisted the temptation to ask if that was what she was really like. He couldn't think of a response at all. He wasn't usually like this around people but there was something about this woman that made him nervous. He took a mouthful of the incredibly hot drink to cover for the fact that words had deserted him.

She finished pouring the second drink and added sugar and milk to it, "I better get this back to my dad. We need to run over our script for the millionth time."

He smiled, "Good luck, it gets easier after the first night."

She smiled shyly again as she walked past him, "Thank you, Paul."

He felt that strange feeling in his chest again and again wondered what the hell it was. As he turned to head back to his locker room he saw his girlfriend marching towards him a few yards away. She demanded, "Who is that?"

He managed a dumb sounding, "Huh?"

"Don't huh me. The girl you were just talking to who was batting her eyelashes at you. Who was it?" She stood with her hands on her hips, her muscular figure tense with anger. Paul wondered why she was always so insecure about things like this, whatever this was. He replied defensively, "That's Stephanie McMahon. She wasn't batting her eyelids at me, she introduced herself and I wished her good luck as this is her first show."

Joanie walked over and started to make herself a coffee. She banged the cup on the table as she did so, clearly indicating that she was still not happy. Paul should have left the conversation there but her attitude pissed him off, "What's wrong with you? A woman introduces herself to me and you go off the deep end? That's not normal, Jo."

She replied angrily, "Go away from me Paul."

He was glad to. He trudged back to his locker room and again the image of Stephanie's smile entered his head.


	2. Chapter 2

_Please note: Any disparaging remarks made by any characters in this story do not reflect my own opinions of the people concerned, especially Andrew 'Test' Martin. May he rest in peace._

* * *

><p>He saw her around the backstage area several times over the next few weeks but the opportunity to talk to her didn't present itself. She seemed to spend most of the time with her dad or her brother and Paul was with Joanie. He certainly couldn't speak to her while Jo was around, that was obvious after the first time.<p>

The second time he spoke to her arrived in similar circumstances to the first, only this time he walked up to her as she was making coffee, "Hi Stephanie."

She turned and smiled, not so shyly this time. She was obviously getting used to being around the wrestlers now, "Hi Paul. Hey, I just got my first storyline!" She beamed as she finished saying it.

Again he got that strange feeling in his chest, "That's great! What is it?"

"I'm working with Andrew."

Paul spent a moment trying to figure out who the hell Andrew was. Eventually he realised, "Test? Seriously?"

She beamed again, "Cool huh? We're going to start dating and he's going to ask me to marry him."

Maybe it was jealousy that made Paul's response sound the way it did, "I'm pleased for you Stephanie but Test? That guy has less charisma than Steve Blackman."

She raised an eyebrow with a small smile, "You're mean."

He realised how he had sounded, "Sorry, it's just... this is obviously going to be a big storyline, I just don't understand why he got it?"

She shrugged, "Don't ask me, I only just found out about it. He seems like a nice guy though." She had finished making her drink, "I need to get back, see you around?"

He smiled, "Definitely, congratulations again."

As she walked away he mumbled to himself, "They put her with that ugly, talentless prick? God damn it."

* * *

><p>He avoided her as much as possible over the next few months. He realised he was incredibly attracted to her and he knew this was a bad thing. Every time they spoke she would smile at him and he would get that strange feeling in his chest.<p>

He wanted to be with Joanie and he felt guilty every time he saw Stephanie and felt the way he felt about her. Joanie seemed to have forgotten about it as she didn't mention Stephanie again after that first day.

Things all changed one night in October. Pat Patterson walked into Paul's locker room and said in his strange accent, "Vince wants to see you. They've got a new storyline idea."

Paul raised his eyebrows and asked anxiously, "What do you mean a new idea? I'm already feuding with Vince. Don't tell me they're dropping it? It's the biggest thing we have going right now!"

Pat slapped him on the shoulder, "You think I know what this is about? I just got told to come fetch you. All I know is he's got a couple of guys from creative in there with him as well as Shane, Test and Stephanie."

This got Paul's attention. What could possibly involve him in that discussion? He got up and followed Pat to some kind of conference room. There was a long table in there with chairs arranged along either side. Vince and Shane were seated on one side with Test, Stephanie and two guys from the creative team on the other side.

Everyone greeted him as he entered and Shane pulled the chair next to him out from under the table for Paul to sit in. He sat down opposite Stephanie which was nice, especially as she wasn't in her 'costume' yet. They exchanged a smile.

He carefully turned his attention to Vince as he began the meeting, "Right, now we're all here... We've decided that we need to do something different with this Test and Stephanie angle. It's not drawing as much as we thought. We're thinking it's all too... how can I explain it? It's all going too well."

Test didn't seem pleased, "People like it Vince, the match I had with Shane at Summerslam got a good reaction. I think people are genuinely pleased for Test and Steph and the wedding will draw big time."

Vince replied calmly, "This isn't a reflection on your work Andrew, or yours Steph. We just think it will be better to take this down another path."

Paul had listened interestedly up to this point, waiting to find out why he was in this meeting. Shane spoke next, "What I suggested, and I'm just putting this out there for comment, is that as Triple H has... issues with Mr. McMahon... maybe we have him interrupt the wedding?"

Paul liked the idea. He looked around at everyone else. Test didn't seem pleased, clearly he wanted things to carry on the way they had originally been planned. He couldn't read the expression on Stephanie's face, maybe she was still considering it. He realised that he should have been the one to speak next, "I like it but... Triple H interrupts the wedding and... what?"

After a moment of silence Stephanie stunned the room, "What if Stephanie married Triple H instead?" There was another pause, Paul tried to believe that he had just heard her correctly. She spoke again, "No... stupid idea. Everyone knows Steph loves Andrew, it would look stupid."

Test unhelpfully chipped in, "Maybe we should just leave it the way it was?"

No one responded to that. A crazy idea came to Paul, "Ok... I have an idea. If you think it's stupid just say so... What if Stephanie married Triple H but she didn't know she did it?"

Stephanie laughed, "What?"

After a few seconds Vince said, "You know... I like that."

Stephanie smiled in confusion, "But how? How can you not know you've married someone? I don't see it."

Paul warmed to his idea, "What about if Stephanie was drugged or something? And Triple H took her to one of those drive through marriage places, you know like they have in Vegas."

Shane laughed, "Yes! I can see that. There's only one problem, she's obviously not going to say 'I do' is she?"

Test chirped up again, "It sounds stupid to me guys."

Again he was ignored. Paul said, "That's the one problem, I agree. It may sound a little stupid but what if Triple H like... said it for her?"

Stephanie laughed again, "What do you mean?"

"I'll show you... Vince?"

Vince agreed, "Yeah, go for it."

Paul got up and walked around to the other side of the table and spoke to the guy from creative who was sitting next to Stephanie and taking notes on the discussion, "Can I just sit there?"

They guy vacated the seat and Paul sat next to Stephanie, "Ok so we're in a car obviously as it's a drive-thru wedding place. I'm driving and Steph is kind of leaning against me, like she's tired. Of course we know she's drugged. Steph could you just..."

He moved closer to her and she rested her head on his shoulder as if she was asleep on him. He put an arm around her and smelled her perfume and the shampoo she had used. She smelled so good. He focussed back on his idea, not wanting to lose his train of thought, "Ok so uh... Shane you do the... service thing."

Shane smiled, clearly he liked this idea, "Ok uh... Stephanie do you take Hunter to be your husband?"

Paul replied from the side of his mouth in a terrible impression of a woman's voice, "I do."

Everyone apart from Test laughed. Vince said, "You're right, it does sound stupid but I love it."

Stephanie sat back upright in her chair. Paul thought that it had been nice while it lasted. She spoke, "I like it too. So we're saying we shoot this beforehand and Triple H interrupts the wedding and puts this footage on the Titantron? Wait a minute... how does Steph get drugged and end up in Hunter's car?"

No one had thought about that. After a pause Vince clicked his fingers, "The bridal shower. Triple H gets someone to put something in Steph's drink."

Paul smiled, "Yes. That would work, we could air segments on that too."

Vince asked the creative guys, "You've got enough to write this up?"

"Yes, sir."

Vince asked the room, "Everyone agreed on this?"

Everyone nodded including Test although he seemed to do so reluctantly.

Vince spoke again, "Right, everyone out. I've got something to discuss with Shane and Steph."

Stephanie gave Paul another of her beautiful smiles as he stood to leave. It was only at this point that the obvious problem hit him. He was going to have to tell Joanie about this.


	3. Chapter 3

As Paul headed back to his locker room he knew that the conversation he was about to have was not going to be pleasant. If Joanie had been pissed off to see him having an innocent conversation with Stephanie then she certainly wasn't going to like the fact that he was going to be working with her every week and marrying her on screen.

Not only did he relish the possibility of getting to know Stephanie better but also he realised that this could be huge for his career. It was true that he was currently in the headline feud with Mr. McMahon but the fact that they'd given this to him really showed him that they believed he would be one of the top guys in the company for the future. Surely Joanie would be happy for him about that?

As he walked into his locker room he saw Joanie was sitting in there waiting for him. She greeted him with, "Where have you been? I've been looking all over."

He sat down next to her, "Vince had me go to a creative meeting. He kind of dropped it on me without warning to be honest."

He saw a trace of suspicion on her face. Why did he always seem to doubt what he said lately? She asked, "A creative meeting about what? I thought you had this rivalry with him worked out already?"

Here we go he thought as he carefully answered, "Well yeah but we've kind of... added something to it."

She actually seemed interested now, "Really? Added what?"

He realised there was no way she wasn't going to lose it when she heard so he just said it, "Triple H is going to interrupt Test and Stephanie's wedding and reveal that he's already married her."

Her eyes narrowed but she didn't instantly explode as he had expected, "You're serious? That's what's going to happen?"

He nodded, "Yeah, this is a huge deal for me Jo. They clearly have huge confidence in me to give me this."

She replied coldly, "Clearly. So you're going to be... working with Stephanie McMahon?"

He knew where this was heading, "Yes Jo, I am. Please don't tell me you've got a problem with that?"

Now she exploded, "No, you go ahead! I bet you fucking jumped at the chance? 'Yes Vince, whatever you say Vince. I'd love to Vince.' She added mockingly.

Paul tried not to let his own anger out of control, "I knew you'd react like this. You can't be happy that I've got this huge opportunity in my career can you?"

She snorted, "Fucking career? I've seen how you look at that little bitch."

Wondering if this was actually true Paul asked, "What the hell are you talking about?"

She raged, "Don't insult me Paul. Every time she's around you get a look in your eye. Don't think I've not seen it."

Again he wasn't sure if this was her paranoia or a statement of fact, frankly there was an equal chance of either being the case. Defensively he replied, "For fuck's sake what's wrong with you? I've only ever spoken to her a handful of times?"

She screamed, "Whatever, Paul! Just fucking do whatever! I'd tear that little slut in half if it wouldn't cost me my job."

Paul couldn't help coming to Stephanie's defence at that, "How is she a slut? You don't even know her. Have you ever even spoken to her?"

She managed the seemingly impossible task of becoming even angrier, "You're going to defend her to me? Fuck you Paul, I'm out of here. Go back to your slut." She slammed the door hard on her way out.

He said to himself sarcastically, "That went well."

He got changed into his wrestling gear and sat back down as he thought about what he could possibly say or do that would make things right with Joanie. He didn't come up with much. There was a knock on the locker room door, "Jo I'm not having another shouting match with you." As he said it he realised it was stupid, if it was Jo she would have slammed back through the door and started into him, she definitely wouldn't have knocked.

The door opened and he saw that it was Stephanie who had knocked. She asked, "Uh... is this a bad time? I can go?" He thought he saw her look him up and down, or did he imagine it?

"Yes... I mean no, come in."

She walked in and stood over him. He realised she was taller than a lot of women, especially in her heels. Did he detect a hint of mischief in her voice as she asked, "Who are you expecting to shout at you?"

He gestured to the empty steel chair next to him, "Sit down Steph. You don't mind if I call you Steph do you?"

She sat down with a grin, "No I don't mind but you answered a question with a question."

He sighed, "Joanie, my girlfriend. She flipped when I told her about this new storyline."

Innocently Stephanie asked, "Why would she do that?"

Paul realised she was toying with him but he enjoyed it, "She can be a strange woman sometimes."

Suddenly Stephanie was serious, "You're damn near the only person around here who doesn't judge me, you know that?"

He was confused, "What do you mean?"

"You speak to me like a person. I mean sure... everyone else says hi or whatever but they all think I'm a self-entitled bitch, it's obvious."

Paul wondered where this came from and where it was heading, "Why would they think that?"

She sighed, "That's what everyone thinks, they always have. Just because your family has money people make assumptions about you."

He realised this really got under her skin and he guessed she had been waiting for a moment to share it with someone, "Well I don't assume anything. I'd like to get to know the real Steph."

She smiled for a second, "I'm sure you will." Then she was all business, "Anyway my dad sent me in here to say that he's looked through the schedule and we have a Raw in Vegas in November so they're going to write our storyline to start then."

As she stood to leave he said, "I'm looking forward to it."

"Me too," she said as she left the room and closed the door.

A few seconds after the door closed he heard a raised voice in the hallway, "What the hell are you doing?!"

He knew immediately what had happened. Joanie had seen Stephanie leaving his locker room. He got and headed for the door. As he did so he looked up to the heavens and asked, "Give me a fucking break would you?"


	4. Chapter 4

Paul opened the locker room door and saw Joanie marching towards Stephanie who was a few yards away. Stephanie had just turned around and she asked, "Excuse me? Are you talking to me?"

Paul stood in Joanie's way and stopped her from approaching Stephanie. He pleaded, "Jo leave it, please! Go in the locker room and we'll talk."

Stephanie had approached Paul from behind and demanded of Joanie, "What did you say to me?"

Paul turned around now, "Steph can you leave this to me? Please?"

Joanie hissed, "He's right, beat it."

Stephanie's nostrils flared as she snorted at Joanie, her disgust plain for all to see. The venom in her eyes left Paul in no doubt about three things; firstly Stephanie was definitely Vince's daughter, he'd seen that look from the old man before. Secondly Jo's card was marked and thirdly in about two minutes Vince was going to hear all about what a rude and insecure bitch Triple H's girlfriend was.

"See you around Paul," Stephanie said sweetly as she turned and marched away.

Paul practically manhandled Joanie into his locker room, "What the hell are you doing? You're going to cost yourself your job and you're going to ruin this for me at the same time."

Joanie was angry, "I was coming back to apologise to you and what do I see? Daddy's little girl sneaking out of your locker room!"

Paul sat down and put his head in his hands out of frustration, "Damn it Jo, she wasn't 'sneaking' anywhere. She came in here to tell me something about the storyline that Vince forgot to mention."

Sarcastically Joanie said, "Right, Vince's legs must have stopped working, clearly he's unable to get here himself to tell you."

Paul pleaded, "Jo I don't want to argue with you about this. I've not even started working with Stephanie yet and this is how you're acting?"

She sat down and took a few moments to try and calm down, "Paul you look me in the eyes and tell me you're not attracted to her."

He took her hands and looked her in the eyes and lied, "I'm not attracted to Stephanie McMahon. I'm working with her and that's all. I promise."

She sighed, "I'm sorry Paul. I'll try my best to get past this. I don't want to argue with you either."

He kissed her, "Thank you, I love you."

* * *

><p>The next week Paul and Joanie hadn't been in the building for long when there was a knock on his locker room door. He shouted, "It's open."<p>

The door opened and Stephanie walked in. She looked stunning as usual and he liked the leather pants she was wearing. She spoke, "Hi Paul, we need you for a meeting. The creative guys have been working on our storyline. Can you come now please?"

It didn't escape anyone that she ignored Joanie completely. Paul said, "Yeah, sure. I can come now." As he stood he kissed Joanie, "I'll be back soon, ok?"

Stephanie had already walked out of the locker room so he hurried to catch up. As he did so he asked, "How are you Steph?"

She seemed a little off with him as she said, "I'm fine." Surely she wasn't jealous that she had seen him kiss Jo? He told himself he was imagining things again. He asked, "Do you know what this meeting is about?"

"We need to listen to what the creative guys came up with after last week's meeting."

As he walked slightly behind her he couldn't help glancing at her ass as she walked. He thought back to the week before when he had denied being attracted to her and felt guilty. What the hell was he doing? He didn't want to lie to his girlfriend but he just couldn't be in the same room as Stephanie without feeling that strange feeling in his chest that he couldn't explain.

He nearly walked into her as she stopped to open a door. He told himself to focus on what he was supposed to be doing. They walked into the room and he saw it was a similar layout to the one they had been in the week before. This time there were only two other people in the room, Vince and a guy from the creative team.

Vince spoke, "Hello Paul, take a seat."

Stephanie sat next to Vince so Paul took the seat opposite her. Vince spoke to the guy from creative, "Go ahead."

"Well we've pretty much gone with Paul's idea as he described it last week as far as the marriage is concerned. No one saw a reason to change any of that. What we've been debating is what happens after that."

Paul realised that he hadn't thought about that at all. Triple H marries Stephanie and then what? He began trying to think of an idea as Vince said, "What ideas do you have?"

"The one that has the most support is that Mr. McMahon faces Triple H in a match to get the marriage annulled. Somehow McMahon wins and sets his daughter free from the marriage. It's a happy ending."

Stephanie spoke straight away, "No, that's lame."

Everyone looked at her and Vince said, "Steph?"

She continued, "I don't like it. Why does McMahon win? Triple H should win... I mean if nothing else McMahon beating Triple H in a match looks stupid by itself."

Paul tried a joke, "She's right Vince, I mean look at you and look at me."

Vince smiled but Paul could tell he was thinking about what Stephanie had said. Eventually he said, "So just assuming Triple H wins the match... what then? Stephanie is stuck in a marriage she doesn't want to be in..."

Stephanie interrupted, "What if she does want to be in it?"

Paul's eyes widened, where was she going with this? Vince was interested now, "Go on, tell us what you're thinking?"

"What if Stephanie costs her dad the match because she wants to be with Triple H?"

Paul spoke, "I like that. But why would she do it? Why would she turn on her dad?"

Stephanie hadn't thought that far ahead and silence descended on the room as everyone tried to think. Suddenly the guy from creative spoke, "The Undertaker thing."

Vince looked at him, "Huh?"

"When Vince had Undertaker kidnap Stephanie a few months ago. What if she didn't forgive him for it? What if she's hated him for it ever since?"

Stephanie's eyes had lit up, "Yes! That's it! Go write that up."

Unused to taking direction from anyone apart from Vince he looked for clarification. Vince said, "You heard her, get to work."

As the guy hurried out Paul said, "This will be really good. No one will see that coming. What's going to happen the next night though? How will Vince react to it?"

Vince said, "We'll go through that next week, one step at a time. I'm happy with what we've come up with today. As you know we're doing the wedding at the Raw show in Vegas, that's only three weeks away. I want the whole thing planned out by then so you two get your heads together and see if there's anything you can come up with for next week's meeting. I'll leave you to it."

As Vince pushed his chair back and left the room Stephanie gave Paul one of those smiles he liked so much, "This is so much better than where they were going with the Test thing."

He smiled back, "What was the plan with that?"

"It was basically they get married and live happily ever after. So boring, no originality, no twist."

He admired the fact that she had put the new idea together seemingly on the fly, clearly this girl had brains as well as good looks. He said, "You're right, your idea is a lot better than that. Any idea what happens next? I mean... Steph turns on Vince so what does he do?"

She thought for a minute. Paul tried to think too but he only succeeded in looking at her eyes and thinking how strikingly beautiful they were. He asked himself again why he couldn't be around her without thinking things like that.

She interrupted his thoughts with, "What if he just didn't come back? What if he was so disgusted that he left? Stephanie would be in charge!"

Paul laughed, "Yeah, ok. As if Vince will go for that."

She gave a mischievous smile, "I can be very persuasive when I want to."

He felt that feeling in his chest again and he finally knew what it was. He was lusting for her. He didn't want to be but he was. He managed to say, "I'll make a bet that you can't get Vince to agree to that idea."

She grinned, "You'll make a bet? Ok then... If he doesn't agree to it I'll give you a hundred bucks. But if he does..." She seemed to be thinking.

Paul laughed, "Come on then... if he does..."

"You must buy me dinner." He instantly knew it was a bad idea but he heard himself say, "I'll make that bet."

She held out her hand to shake on the bet as she said, "And I don't mean at McDonald's!"

He laughed as he shook her soft hand, noting that it was warm to the touch. A voice in his head demanded to know what the fuck he was doing and he realised it was time to get out of the room and away from Stephanie before he said or did anything more stupid that what had already happened.


	5. Chapter 5

Paul deliberately avoided Stephanie on Thursday night at Smackdown, He had felt guilty all week at his realisation of how he really felt about her. He didn't want to cheat on his girlfriend and he certainly didn't want to leave her. They were in love and had been for years.

He also hadn't been able to stop himself thinking about why Stephanie had made her side of the bet that he had to take her to dinner. Was she toying with him or did she genuinely have some interest in him? At least the one positive thing was that there was no way Vince would go for her idea.

It was a pleasant evening with Joanie, without any sight or mention of Stephanie, the way things used to be. He made a decision. He was determined that he was going to be faithful to Jo, he would stop feeling the way he did about Stephanie. He would work with her and that would be all.

He arrived for Raw on Monday night with this fresh determination. He had just spent a few minutes watching Joanie training in the ring. She was putting in a lot of work as she was the first woman ever to hold the Intercontinental title and she needed to be at her best to compete with the male wrestlers in her matches. As he walked along the hallway he heard, "My dad wants a word with you."

He turned around, willing her not to be smiling at him but of course she was. She teased, "You should hurry before you get into trouble."

Trying to sound businesslike he asked, "What does Vince want me for?"

She stood aside so that he could walk past her, "To tell you about the next part of the storyline. Last door on the right."

As he walked past her he noticed a glint in her eyes. He was wondering what it meant until when he was a few paces away from her she spoke again, "I have expensive tastes Paul, you should know that."

He turned to ask her what that was supposed to mean but she was already walking away. Congratulating himself on the small victory that was the fact that he hadn't looked at her legs or her ass as she did so he headed for Vince's office.

As he walked in Vince said, "Ah there you are. Just to keep you up to speed, we've decided to go with the idea you and Steph came up with. Good job on that, it took her a while to talk me into it but on reflection I think it will be great."

Trying not to sound confused or stupid Paul said, "Thanks Vince, so uh... tell me exactly what you've put together." He was afraid that he already knew the answer and he was correct.

Vince's eyes narrowed slightly as if he found the question a little strange, "As I said we've gone with the idea you and Steph came up with. McMahon is so disgusted with his daughter that he walks out on WWE leaving Stephanie and by association Triple H in charge."

Paul nodded his satisfaction as he thought, "Oh shit, I owe Stephanie dinner."

Vince said, "We can't really just have McMahon disappear after the match and not be seen again though. We're going to have to do a segment in the ring where Stephanie explains why she did what she did but apart from that your idea was very good."

Unsure as to why Stephanie had told Vince that he had helped to come up with this when in fact it had been her he said, "Thanks Vince."

Vince had one more thing to say, "This is a big responsibility Paul. Once this is underway you'll be the top man in this place. As you know Stone Cold is out for neck surgery after Survivor Series so the two guys will be you and Rock. Not only that you're a lot more experienced than Stephanie so you're going to have to help her at times too. Don't let me down."

Paul assured him, "I won't let you down Vince but I don't think Stephanie needs help from me. She seems to know what she's doing just fine."

Vince laughed, "Right, but she's too much like her old man. She's hot headed and stubborn and even I realise that that's not always a good thing so just do as I ask and keep an eye on her, ok?"

Paul nodded and left the office. As began to walk towards his locker room he heard her voice behind him again, "You owe me. We made a bet."

He turned around and saw that she was leaning against the wall just outside of Vince's office. He said, "Will you stop sneaking up behind me."

She replied innocently, "I'm not sneaking anywhere, I'm standing here. Like I said... you owe me."

He sighed, "Steph I can't take you out to dinner, ok? Jo would go crazy."

She walked over and stood right in front of him, "Then we have a problem. You made the bet."

He didn't want an argument with her especially after what Vince had just said about her being stubborn and hot headed. He said, "Alright so I owe you dinner. I didn't say when. It will have to be when Jo isn't here for some reason. If she finds out about this we're both dead, ok?"

Stephanie pouted, "You don't think I could handle her?"

He laughed at that, "Are you serious? Have you not seen her before?" One thing Stephanie definitely wasn't was a wrestler. She was slim and certainly not muscular.

Seemingly insulted by his statement of the obvious she said, "Whatever, I've got to go get changed," and she marched away.

He headed back to his locker room trying to figure out what his reaction was to the fact that he had offended her. Eventually he decided that it wasn't a bad thing. Maybe he could get out of taking her to dinner, for a while at least.


	6. Chapter 6

Two weeks. Stephanie had avoided him for two weeks now. One throwaway comment and she avoided him for two weeks. It was driving him crazy. He expected Vince to come to him at any moment and tell him that Stephanie had pulled out of the storyline and that it had been cancelled.

In fact that exactly what he expected to hear right now. He had just been summoned to Vince's office. As if he wasn't busy enough preparing for his match. Tonight was Survivor Series and he had to drop the WWF title to Big Show in a triple threat match. He had no problem doing a job for another wrestler but Big Show as the champion? Seriously?

He shook these thoughts from his mind as he walked into Vince's office. The first thing he noticed was that Stephanie was there. She gave him a big smile and said sweetly, "Hi Paul."

What was this? She had spent two weeks avoiding him and now this? Or had she been avoiding him? Maybe she had just been busy? Or maybe she had been leaving him to realise how much he would miss her if she did purposely avoid him? Or was he making all of this up in his own head? Damn it, what was it with this girl?

He tried to focus, "Hi Steph, Vince."

Vince nodded, "Paul, I know you're busy so we'll keep this quick. As you know the wedding is two weeks from tomorrow night, in Vegas. We're going to need to tape the bridal shower scenes and the scene at the drive-thru marriage place beforehand so I need you and Stephanie in Vegas on the Saturday night. Is that a problem?"

Paul realised that although it sounded like a question there was only one acceptable answer, "Of course, no problem."

Vince nodded again, "Good, I'll let you get back to it."

As Paul turned to leave he made eye contact with Stephanie and made a small gesture with his head to ask her to follow him out of the office.

He closed the door as he left, hoping that she would follow. At least a minute went by and he was about to give up and leave when the door opened and she came out. She said, "Walk." and set of down the hallway. Clearly she didn't want to talk outside of her dad's door.

He caught up to her and she asked, "Are you ok? You've been avoiding me."

This took him by surprise, "I've what?"

"You've not spoken to me for two weeks Paul. If it's about taking me to dinner we can forget it, ok? I get the message."

His head was spinning. She thought he was avoiding her? And she was upset about it? He heard himself say, "No uh... I'm not avoiding you. And I'm not backing out of that bet either."

Her heels clicked on the floor as she walked on without replying. He felt the need to fill the silence, "Steph, I'm sorry if you thought I was avoiding you. I really wasn't."

She replied calmly, "If you don't want to work with me we can still back out of this. Maybe."

Hastily he said, "No. That's not what I want. I like you... Uh... to work with I mean."

She stopped and looked at him with a slight, amused looking smile and a raised eyebrow. She said, "Isn't this you?"

He realised they were standing outside of his locker room. Embarrassed he said, "Right. Uh... Steph..."

She let him off the hook, "I know what you meant Paul. I think I'm going to enjoy working with you too. Good luck out there tonight."

Determined not to watch her leave he hastily entered his locker room and closed the door. After he had closed the door he softly banged his forehead against it, "I just said I like you. God fucking damn it."

He sat down and found himself wishing that he knew what she thought about him. She was so hard to read. He wasn't sure if she had any interest in him. He didn't even know whether she had been avoiding him or not. Maybe the whole thing had been deliberate to cause him to admit to both of them that he liked her?

One thing he did know was that no matter what he told Joanie or even himself he could not stop thinking about Stephanie McMahon and in two weeks he would be working with her two nights each week and pretending to be married to her. He couldn't wait.


	7. Chapter 7

Paul decided that he needed to talk to someone before he drove himself insane. He headed out to find his friend Sean. He found him in the men's locker room talking with Kane about their current rivalry. Paul walked over and said, "Hi guys. Sean can I borrow you for a few minutes? I need to talk."

Sean was about to make a joke but he saw the serious expression on his friend's face, "Sure, we're about done here." She stood and slapped Kane on the shoulder, "See you out there."

Paul began to lead the way back to his locker room and Sean said, "We don't see much of you lately, since they gave you your own locker room."

Paul sighed, "It's nothing to do with having my own locker room. I've had some stuff going on and I've been keeping a low profile to be honest."

"Really, what's going on?"

"I'll tell you when we're in private."

Sean began to worry, "It's not Jo is it? Where is she anyway?"

"It's not her, not really. She's off working with Jericho on their match."

They said nothing further until they had entered Paul's locker room and sat down. Sean said, "Go on then... let's hear it."

Paul realised that he'd came this far but he didn't know how to actually explain the problem, "Well the thing is... I don't know to explain. This has to remain between the two of us Sean, please?"

"Of course, but you haven't told me anything!"

Paul took a deep breath, "it's Stephanie. I think I'm falling for her."

He saw his friends eyes widen, "Dude, what the hell?"

"It's true. I can't stop thinking about her and you know me I'm always confident in talking to people but around her I'm a total idiot. I accidentally told her that I like her earlier."

Sean sighed, "Christ, Paul. You don't even know the woman. You're with Jo and you're both happy together. Everyone knows that."

"I know and I keep telling myself that and it's fine until the second I see Steph, I can't help myself."

Sean sounded frustrated, "That's not falling in love with someone Paul, that's finding someone attractive. Like I said you don't know the woman. Not only that but if you go anywhere near her Vince will fire your ass. You know what he's like."

Paul realised that his friend was at least partly right, he didn't know anything about Stephanie. He said, "So what's your advice?"

"It's obvious Paul. Until you start your storyline with her stay away and sort your head out. That is assuming you want to be with Jo?"

"Of course I want to be with Jo."

Sean asked, "Have you had any indication from Stephanie that she's interested in you?"

Paul thought for a second and answered honestly, "I don't know. She seems to like to play games with me but maybe I just imagine it. Damn it I don't know."

Sean laughed, "Well I'd say you've got two weeks to figure it out before you start working with her."

Paul closed his eyes, "You're right. I'll stay away from her until next Saturday."

"Saturday?"

"We've got to film our wedding in Vegas and Vince arranged it so that we're doing it on the Saturday night."

Sean teased, "Take her out in Vegas, get drunk, who knows what might happen?"

Paul put his head in his hands, "Don't even say that."

* * *

><p>He managed to avoid Stephanie for nearly the whole time until the Vegas trip. He'd also managed to tell Joanie about it without her going crazy. He'd promised that he would do the filming and then head straight back to his hotel room. As Jo wouldn't be there he didn't feel like going out into Vegas anyway.<p>

It was the Thursday before it was due to happen when Stephanie came to his locker room. There was a knock on the door and he yelled, "Come in."

Stephanie entered, wearing one of those impossibly short skirts. It wasn't possible not to look at her legs. She said, "Hi Paul. Do you have a minute?"

He gestured to an empty steel chair, "Sure."

She sat down and crossed her legs, "What hotel are you in Saturday night?"

Making sure to keep his focus on her eyes he said, "The same as you I'd guess. It was booked for me."

He told her the name and she nodded, "That's good. I'll have a car collect us and take us to the drive-thru wedding place that's been organised."

He smiled, "Sounds good."

Her next question caught him off guard, "Are you looking forward to it?"

"To Vegas? Sure."

She gave him one of those smiles, "I meant to working together."

"Oh, right... yes of course."

She studied him and said, "You're not at all what I expected, you know that?"

Nervously he asked, "What do you mean?"

She grinned, there was humour in it this time, "You're one of the top guys here and yet you seem so nervous all of the time. You can be at ease around me Paul."

He stopped himself from saying, "I wish I could," and went instead with, "Right."

She uncrossed her legs and stood, "I'll see you Saturday then?"

He stood to show her out of the locker room, "For sure."

As she left and walked down the hallway he found himself looking at her legs and ass again. She turned around to say something and caught him. Instead of saying whatever it was she was going so say she just looked at him for a few seconds and then he saw her bite her bottom lip suggestively. She turned and carried on walking.

He closed the locker room door and sat down. He said aloud, "Shit! She caught me... And she responded to it, now what am I going to do?"


	8. Chapter 8

Today was the day and now was the time. In fact five minutes ago was the time. Paul was waiting in the lobby of the hotel for Stephanie as was the car driver. Where was she?

He saw her emerge from the elevator and head towards him. She was dressed in what she referred to as her 'costume'. Her more conservative clothes and makeup that better fitted her on screen character. Obviously it didn't make her any less attractive but he still felt a little disappointed.

As she approached him she said, "I'll be glad when this is over."

Paul wasn't sure what it was that she wanted to be over. Did she mean tonight? "What?"

She clarified, "Sorry, I meant playing this character. Doing my makeup and changing so many times each night, it's such a drag."

He smiled, "You look great Steph, what's wrong with the way you're dressed?"

She laughed, "Shut up. I look like I'm a thirty year old house wife for god's sake."

He led the way towards the exit and the car driver joined up with them, "We need to hurry, we're going to be late."

Apparently Stephanie took this as sarcasm relating to her punctuality as she barked at him, "Why don't you worry about driving the car and let me worry about what time it is?"

Paul tried to hide a grin. Something about the way she spoke aggressively turned him on. But then... so did everything else she did.

As they got outside they approached the car and the driver opened his door to get in. Stephanie barked again, "Hey! Open my door first! Do you have a clue how to be a professional driver?"

As he scurried over full of apologies Stephanie winked at Paul to let him know she was only doing this to put him in his place for his earlier ill considered remark. Paul felt sure that the lesson had been learned and he tried not to laugh.

As they got comfortable in the back of the car he whispered, "I think you showed that guy."

She giggled and he saw those little creases that appeared on the sides of her nose when she smiled. He found it insanely attractive and he had the urge to kiss her. He told himself not to be stupid.

They chatted about work and about the storyline as the travelled and he was surprised to begin to feel at ease around her.

* * *

><p>They got to the drive-thru wedding place and filmed the wedding scene in only two takes. Stephanie ruined the first one by laughing while she was supposed to be asleep.<p>

They both got out of the car they had used to film the scene and she asked, "What now?"

He shrugged, "Back to the hotel I guess. Where is that car driver?"

Stephanie raised an eyebrow, "We're in Vegas Paul. We have our own car and driver and I can put anything we do on expenses, within reason at least, and you want to go back to the hotel?"

Paul hesitated, "Well I..."

She twisted the knife, "In any case I'm hungry and someone owes me dinner."

He considered it. He had made the bet and lost and he had promised he would take Stephanie to dinner when Jo wasn't around. Also he was hungry. He said, "Well... I did make the bet."

She grinned, "You did and you lost."

"Where would you like to eat? I mean we don't have a reservation anywhere and you said you only like expensive places."

She laughed, "I was fooling with you, idiot. I don't mind where we eat, it's the company that interests me."

He thought, "Holy shit! What was that supposed to mean?" but he said, "Right. The hotel had a nice looking restaurant..."

"I suppose that will be easier. It won't be hard to drag you to your room after I drink you under the table."

He laughed now, "That's never happening. Come on, let's get out of here."

They went and found the car driver and headed back to the hotel. Paul went to head straight for the restaurant but she stopped him, "What are you doing?"

"Uh... going to eat?"

She raised that inquisitive eyebrow again, "Seriously? You're not going to change? I know I am. I'll meet you down here in an hour."

Realising he had made himself appear stupid again he said, "Of course, change, right. Sorry, I'm too hungry to think properly."

She led him towards the elevators as she said, "Uh huh." which let him know that she knew perfectly well what the reason was that he wasn't thinking properly.

They entered the elevator and he pushed to button for the third floor. He asked, "What floor are you on?"

"Ten."

"Top floor huh? Daddy looked after you."

Her face fell and she said, "Don't do that Paul."

Realising his mistake and remembering her previously telling him about her insecurities about how people thought of her he said, "Sorry Steph, it was just a poor attempt at humour."

She said nothing and the elevator stopped on the third floor. The doors slid open and he said, "I'll see you in an hour then?"

Again she didn't reply as the doors slid closed. He headed for his room and cursed himself, "Fucking idiot."

* * *

><p>He took a shower and dressed in a pair of smart pants and a shirt that he had brought just in case. He headed down to the restaurant to wait for her, half expecting her not to show up after his stupid comment had offended her.<p>

He briefly considered heading back to his room but that realised that wouldn't be an option as she emerged from the elevator. She wasn't wearing the kind of thing she usually seemed to go for instead she was wearing a dark blue dress that complimented her figure perfectly. She looked stunning.

She approached him and smiled, "You don't look too bad when you make an effort."

"I was about to say the same thing."

She pouted but he knew she was pretending, "A real charmer too."

He laughed and she linked her arm with his and they walked into the restaurant. He glanced at her as she walked next to him. He could get used to this.


	9. Chapter 9

Taking a girl out to dinner wasn't something he'd done often, certainly not one who was presumably accustomed to the finer things in life like Stephanie. He hoped that he wouldn't embarrass himself.

They were approached by a server and Paul asked for a table for two. They were led to a table and Paul decided it would be good manners to pull Stephanie's chair out for her. As she sat down she giggled and Paul also saw a little grin on the face of the server. Maybe that was over the top for a place like this? As he sat he heard Stephanie say, "Excuse him, we got married today."

Paul was surprised and felt himself smiling. The server said, "Oh! Congratulations. Honeymoon in Vegas huh?"

Stephanie grinned, "Something like that."

"Considering the occasion I recommend this wine..." He showed her on the wine list. "It's one of the most expensive but it's definitely the nicest we have."

Stephanie said, "Ok, get us that one. You drink wine Paul, right?"

The server raised an eyebrow. Paul guessed that he was wondering why his 'wife' didn't know what he liked to drink.

He joked, "It's on expenses. Nothing is too good for my wife if I'm not paying for it."

The server said, "Uh.. I'll get your wine." and walked away.

Stephanie laughed, "You dare try putting this on expenses."

Mischievously he said, "You wouldn't know if I did."

She grinned, "Wrong. I work in accounts. I can see all of your expenses if I want to."

"Really? I didn't know that."

Her grin got even more mischievous, "I can see everything, even those dirty movies you order in your hotel room."

He blushed and stuttered, "Uh... I don't, I mean I haven't... I don't order porn in my room!"

She giggled, "It must be your girlfriend then."

"Steph!"

She giggled again and raised her hands and rubbed them together, pretending that they we cold. She held them out towards him, "Can I warm my hands on your cheeks? They're bright red!"

He laughed as the server arrived with the wine. He poured a small amount for Stephanie to taste and she nodded. The server poured a glass for each of them and asked, "Are you ready to order?"

Paul realised that they hadn't looked at a menu yet. He said, "Give us five minutes."

The server nodded and walked away. Paul handed Stephanie a menu and then opened one for himself. He saw that the prices in this place were not actually too bad but he hoped the food would be nice enough for her. He noticed that she hadn't opened her menu, instead she was looking at him. He smiled nervously, "What?"

"You can order for me."

"I don't know what you like."

She grinned again, "Then let's hope you guess correctly." She seemed very happy in his company, she had spent most of the time smiling or giggling. It helped him feel at ease although he didn't know why she had insisted that he order for her.

He asked, "What if I order something that you don't like?"

"I won't be happy."

Nervously he asked, "But you're happy now, right?"

She smiled and this time he could tell that she wasn't playing with him, "Yes."

She studied the menu trying to decide what to order for her. Before he knew it the server arrived again and he asked, "Are you ready to order?"

"Yes. I'll have the steak, well done. My wife will have... the fish."

The server left with the order and Paul searched for a reaction to give him a clue if he had ordered something she liked or not. He noticed she was trying to hide a smile. After a few moments she failed and said, "You're good. I would most likely have ordered that myself."

He laughed, "Ok so I passed your little test. Now you have to tell me about yourself."

Shyly she said, "I didn't agree to that."

"Seriously Steph, please tell me about yourself. I like your company but I know nothing about you."

She spent the next thirty minutes telling him about herself. Again he noticed how at ease she seemed to be in his company and he was glad she felt the same way that he did. When he had first me her he had feared that deep down she might be a spoilt little princess or even worse a total airhead but he was pleased to find out that she was neither. She seemed like a genuinely nice girl and she made him laugh so easily.

He was actually disappointed when the food arrived and broke up the conversation. They made small talk over the meal and he noticed that she drank most of the wine.

She declined his offer of dessert and sadly it was time to leave. He paid for the meal and they walked out of the restaurant, heading for the elevator and their rooms.

Stephanie said, "Thank you for tonight Paul. It's not often I get to enjoy something like this."

"You're more than welcome. We should do it again soon, I really enjoyed it. Next time it can be on expenses though, right?"

She laughed, "No. Next time it's on me."

They entered the elevator and as he reached to push the button for the third floor she gently slapped his hand, "Where are your manners? You escort the lady back to her room first."

He thought, "Oh Jesus, don't go in there. Don't go into her room whatever you do."

As they arrived on the tenth floor she led the way to her door. She put her card in the slot and when the light turned green she opened the door and stood in the doorway. She looked into his eyes and said, "Thank you again, Paul."

"My pleasure Steph."

She reached up and kissed him. She didn't have to reach far as she was nearly as tall as him in her heels. She let the kiss linger for just a micro second longer than it should have if it was just a friendly gesture. She said, "Goodnight," and closed the door.

He stood there thinking about the kiss and the fact that it had lingered ever so slightly. He knew he hadn't imagined it. He also knew that she had deliberately not invited him into her room. The question was whether he was pleased or disappointed about it. He considered it as he headed back to his room. Disappointed, definitely.


	10. Chapter 10

Paul entered his room and lay down on the bed having decided to rest for a few minutes before he got ready for bed. He lay there thinking about what a nice night it had been. He rolled over to get comfortable and something dug into his leg. It was his phone. He'd forgotten all about it and he'd left it on silent.

He took it out of his pocket and sat that he had twelve missed calls and two messages. He thought, "Twelve missed calls? Christ."

He checked who they were from. There was one from his dad and the other eleven were from Jo. He said aloud, "Oh god, she's going to go wild."

He checked the two messages. Both were from Jo, the first one was: Call me! and the second was: Call me!

He sighed as he realised that the longer he left it the worse it would get. He called her number and didn't have to wait long for an answer, "What the hell Paul? What have you been doing?"

He didn't want to lie to her so he decided to be economical with the truth, "Sorry Jo, I've just been lying on the bed and my phone was on silent."

She snorted, "I bet you have."

Tiredly he asked, "You bet I have what?"

She sounded angry, "Lying on your bed for the last hour and a half. Lying there with that slut on top of you I bet."

Paul began to lose his patience, "Jo just shut up will you? You're being stupid now."

She demanded, "Swear to me that Stephanie hasn't been in that room."

Sure, he could do that, "I swear to you, Stephanie hasn't even been near my room."

"And you swear to me you haven't been in hers?"

Yeah he could do that too, "I swear. I haven't been in Stephanie's room and she hasn't been in mine."

She began to calm down but she said, "You know that if I find out you're telling me lies we're done?"

"Jo I've not lied to you. I'm tired and I'm going to sleep. Will you get a hold of yourself before Monday? I don't want this crap from you."

She apologised, "I'm sorry Paul. I just miss you."

"Goodnight Jo." He ended the call and turned his phone off.

* * *

><p>Stephanie was walking along a hallway attempting to find her brother to give him his script for tonight's Raw. Where the hell had he got to? That was when she noticed Paul's girlfriend Joanie in the distance.<p>

Stephanie stopped and watched her as she was doing some kind of warm up exercises. She thought, "What does he see in her? She looks like a man for god's sake and she's so insecure. She must be a nightmare to be around. And where did she get off demanding to know what I was doing that night when I came out of Paul's locker room?"

Stephanie figured that she still owed the bitch for that and she had an idea. She set off in her direction.

She made sure that she was going to walk right past Joanie, there was no way that she wouldn't see her. Sure enough as Stephanie got close she heard Joanie say coldly, "Stephanie."

She stopped and pretended she hadn't noticed who she was walking past, "Oh hi! Uh.. your name... sorry it's gone?"

Stephanie noticed the first hint of anger in Joanie's face and thought, "That was easy." Joanie clarified her name and demanded, "So did you have a nice time in Vegas with my boyfriend?"

Stephanie said sweetly, "Yes thank you."

Joanie laughed, thinking she had the upper hand, "I already know he didn't go near you."

Stephanie said slyly, "I suppose that depends how you define near doesn't it?"

Joanie's eyes narrowed in obvious anger and she demanded, "What the hell does that mean?"

Stephanie spoke sweetly again, "Well we weren't any further apart than you and I are now... over dinner."

Joanie's cheeks reddened and Stephanie tried desperately not to grin. Joanie said, "You had dinner with Paul."

Stephanie clarified helpfully, "Paul bought me dinner yes. Anyway I have to deliver this... so I'll leave that with you."

Stephanie walked away feeling Joanie's eyes burning into the back of her head. She thought, "I'd call us even now, bitch. Now you know that your man wants me. As if there was any doubt." She grinned.

* * *

><p>Paul had just finished reading his script when his locker flew open and smashed against the wall. Before he realised what was going on Joanie walked over and slapped him in the face and yelled, "Bastard!"<p>

He instinctively put a hand up to his cheek where she had hit him and yelled, "What the hell was that for?"

She raged, "I just spoke to that little slut of yours and heard all about your little dinner date the other night. You're a real bastard Paul!"

Unable to think fast enough he played for time by saying, "What are you talking about?"

"What am I talking about? Try and think back Paul.. all the way back to Saturday night. That's forty eight hours, I know it's a long time. There was a meal, you were there and so was Stephanie McMahon. Ringing any bells so far?"

Despite the obvious need to explain himself his only thought was, "Stephanie told her about it? What the hell is she doing?"

He hadn't replied and Joanie yelled, "What's the matter Paul? Can't think of more bullshit fast enough? I'll save you the trouble, don't talk to me again... ever!"

She stormed out and slammed the door.

Paul sat down feeling dazed, "Thanks Steph. Thanks a lot."


	11. Chapter 11

Paul gave Joanie some time to calm down and then headed out of his locker room to try and find her. Instead he saw Stephanie, she was standing with Test. He guessed that they were talking about the show. As he approached he saw the she had noticed him and he heard her ask Test, "Give us a minute would you?"

Paul saw Test turn and look at him, his expression wasn't friendly. Paul thought, "Someone else who doesn't like me," not that he cared about Test's opinion.

Test walked away and Paul asked Stephanie, "Steph what did you say to Jo?"

Stephanie said defensively, "She came at me with a bunch of questions about Saturday night."

"You do realise she's furious with me now, right?"

She looked him in the eye and he thought about how beautiful her eyes were as she said, "I told your girlfriend the truth Paul, maybe you should try it?"

He was surprised by that and before he came up with a response she continued, "Or better yet, tell yourself the truth first."

He was confused, "What does that mean?"

She looked at him for a moment with a kind of quizzical expression and he knew exactly what she meant. She said, "Really?"

"Steph... I..."

Stephanie reached up and whispered in his ear, "Tell her Paul. I'll see you later."

He smelled her perfume and as she walked away he so desperately wanted to go after her and kiss her. He remembered the brief kiss they had shared outside of her room on Saturday and he wanted more.

He headed off again in search of Joanie and he told himself, "You've got to stop this. You love Jo and you're thinking about kissing Stephanie. You've got to get her out of your head and fix things with Jo. You've been with her for years and you can't let it slip away because of this stupid attraction you have for Stephanie."

Eventually he managed to find Joanie. He found her talking with her on screen manager Stacy who was known as The Kat. As they saw him coming her saw Stacy whisper something to Jo and then she walked away to give them some space. As Stacy walked past him Paul thought he heard her mumble, "Asshole."

Joanie said, "Paul just save your breath, ok? I don't want to hear more bullshit from you."

"I didn't lie to you Jo. You asked if Stephanie had been in my room and if anything had happened between us. I told you the truth about that."

Her eyes narrowed, "Don't get cute with me Paul. You promised me nothing would happen that night and yet you bought her dinner and you deliberately avoided telling me about it."

He sighed, "Only because I knew how you would react. Nothing happened Jo, we had a meal and that's all. I don't want anything to happen with Stephanie, I want to be with you."

Sadly she said, "What do you mean you 'want' to be with me? You are with me."

"Am I? You told me to never speak to you again."

She hugged him and said, "Please just stay away from her Paul. She's bad news."

Paul said, "I can't stay away from her, we're working together. Hell, I've got to go to a creative meeting with her any minute now."

Joanie said, "I really want to trust you Paul, I really do but if anything happens between you and her again we're done. We both need to understand that."

He kissed her, "I understand. I'll work with her and that's all, I promise. In fact I swear. I love you Jo."

"I love you Paul."

* * *

><p>Paul walked into the creative meeting and from the way everyone looked at him he figured that he was late. Shane McMahon was in the meeting and he said, "Cancel the search party, here he is."<p>

Paul apologised, "Sorry everyone, Vince. I was uh... I lost track of the time. Sorry."

He sat down opposite Stephanie as that was the only free chair. He ignored her slightly raised eyebrow.

Vince sounded irritated but he didn't give Paul a hard time, "Right, let's get on with it. We're here to talk about the match between Mr. McMahon and Triple H at Armageddon. We've got to work out the finish and exactly how Stephanie ends up with Triple H. Let's hear ideas."

Stephanie said, "We decided that Stephanie costs her dad the match, right?"

Vince nodded, "That's what we said but I'm not sure about it."

Stephanie asked, "What do you mean?"

"I don't think Stephanie should get involved in the match."

Stephanie asked, "So how does she turn then. You're not making sense."

Shane said, "No... he's got something there. Picture this..." He paused for a second presumably to run his idea through again in his head. "Ok, picture this. We have Stephanie sit in the front row. She wants to watch her dad beat the man she hates so much, or that's what we think. At the end of the match Vince gets a weapon and he's about to bash Triple H's brains in. Let's say that it's that sledgehammer of yours Paul. As Vince is about to hit Triple H Stephanie appears in the ring and she asks Vince to let her hit Triple H with the hammer but when he hands it over she nails Vince with it instead?"

Stephanie beamed, "I like that."

Paul had also had an idea, "What about if we make it more subtle than that? As Vince said maybe Steph shouldn't be involved in the match directly."

Stephanie said, "Paul..." but Vince interrupted, "I'll hear that idea, please."

Paul said, "We go with Shane's idea up to the point where Steph has the hammer but she does try and hit Triple H with it but suddenly she hesitates as she can't bring herself to do it. Triple H seizes the opportunity and snatches it from her and he nails Vince with it and gets the three."

Vince said, "I like that, but how does she turn?"

Stephanie clearly liked the idea too, "I've got it. She stands there looking at her dad as he lies there, like she's shocked that she caused him to get hit with the hammer. Triple H stands there staring at her as he knows there is nothing she can do to escape him now but suddenly she looks at him and she smiles. Then she walks over and hugs him."

Shane said, "I love that. It's better than my idea."

Paul agreed, "I think that's perfect."

Vince said, "Right, we're agreed. I'll have it written up. Everyone happy with what's happening tonight?"

Everyone was happy and the meeting came to a close. Paul got up and left quickly, making sure he got away before Stephanie could attempt to speak to him, if she intended to.

He had made a promise to Jo and he would keep it. From now on it was only business between him and Stephanie.


	12. Chapter 12

_I was undecided on how to approach the first part of this chapter as I thought maybe I should cover it in more detail but eventually I decided that this is Paul and Stephanie's story not Paul and Jo's so I liked it better this way._

* * *

><p>Paul had actually managed to do it. For the last few weeks he'd done his storyline segments with Stephanie and been to the necessary meetings where she was also present but on a personal level he had cut her off all together. He could tell she wasn't happy about it but he was determined to make things work with Jo. He realised it would be harder after the Armageddon pay per view when they would actually be working together for the whole show every week but he would manage.<p>

He was so determined that the previous night he had asked Jo to marry him. If that didn't show his commitment then what would? Jo had seemed shocked and delighted when he had asked the question and she had said yes. He had spent a small fortune on a ring for her and he remembered that as he put it onto her finger he had thought, "That will show Stephanie I'm not interested."

He had also briefly wondered why he was thinking about Stephanie at a moment like that but whatever, he was over her.

* * *

><p>Stephanie was heading back to her dad's office after changing into her stupid costume and doing her makeup again. She was so sick of this, at least after this Sunday she wouldn't have to do it any more. She could wear what she was comfortable in and look the way she chose, it would fit with her new character. She had been really looking forward to it but less so as the weeks went by. Paul was pissing her off. He'd stopped talking to her about anything apart from work and even though she'd upped her efforts to make him interested in her it hadn't worked. He was still with that bitch Joanie.<p>

Just as she was thinking about Joanie she saw her approaching. Stephanie thought, "Just what I need right now. I swear if this bitch gets in my face..."

Joanie smiled, "Oh hi Steph!"

Not in any mood to chat, least of all with Joanie, Stephanie barked, "What do you want?"

Still with a big smile on her face Joanie said, "Cheer up! I have good news!"

Stephanie said irritably, "I can't imagine anything you have to say being good news for me."

Joanie said sweetly, "Are you sure? How about if I told you Paul asked me to marry him?"

Stephanie told herself not to react but he realised that she already had as Joanie was smirking at her. She said, "What was that phrase you used? Oh yeah... I'll leave that with you."

Joanie marched off and Stephanie felt herself begin to boil. She told herself, "I'll get that bitch out of this company if it's the last thing I do."

She stormed off towards her dad's office.

* * *

><p>Paul and Joanie were getting ready to leave the arena after Raw had finished when Chris Jericho walked into Paul's locker room. He shook hands with Paul as they exchanged greetings and then he said, "Jo I actually came to see you. I just heard that uh... our match Sunday has been changed. I'm going over now."<p>

Her eyes widened, "They're giving you my title? The title I mean."

Chris shrugged, "That's what I've just been told. Don't shoot the messenger. I'll see you Thursday I guess?"

Jo said quietly, "Yeah, see you."

Chris nodded his goodbye to Paul and left. Paul asked, "What was that about? You don't think he's done something behind your back do you?"

Joanie said icily, "No. This is McMahon... the fucking bitch."

As she had said McMahon Paul had been about to ask why Vince would take the title off her so suddenly but as she completed the sentence he said, "That's a bit of a leap Jo, why would Stephanie do this? Hell, I don't think she even can."

She was obviously angry, "Don't be stupid Paul, we both know exactly what she can do. She can go running to daddy."

Paul was confused, "Ok so let's assume this was Stephanie for a second... why?"

Joanie closed her eyes, "I made a point of telling her that we are engaged earlier. I was hoping for a reaction."

Paul sighed, "For Christ's sake Jo. Well you got your reaction I'd say."

Joanie said, "I told you Paul, I told you she was a bitch."

"Why didn't you just leave her alone Jo? Things have been going well but you just couldn't drop it could you? Now you've lost your title run and I'm probably going to be the next one on the receiving end. Really good job."

"I'm sorry Paul, it was stupid."

"Damn right it was," Paul said as he stormed out of the locker room.

"Paul! Wait!" Joanie hurried out of the locker room to go after him.

* * *

><p>Out in the parking lot Stephanie sat in the McMahon family limo waiting for her dad to finish whatever the hell he was doing inside the building. She was getting more irritated by the second, she'd had enough of this place for one night and she wanted to get back to the hotel.<p>

She glanced out of the window and saw Paul and Joanie walking towards their car. It was obvious that they were having an argument. Stephanie watched them until they drove away. For the first time that night she smiled, "Trouble in paradise."


	13. Chapter 13

"Steph we need to talk." Paul said as he approached her. It was Thursday night and they were backstage before Smackdown.

She turned and looked at him, "Interesting the way you put that. I'd have gone with 'Steph I want to talk'."

Paul was confused, "What?"

"You blank me for three weeks and then all of a sudden you need to talk about something and you expect me to be all ears?"

Paul said, "I've not been blanking you Steph."

"Now you're assuming that I'm an idiot."

Paul began to get frustrated, "I don't want an argument here."

She sighed and said, "What do you want Paul?"

"I'd like you to be honest. Did you have Jo's title taken from her?"

She didn't hesitate, "Yes."

Paul felt his anger building, "Damn it Steph, why?"

Her eyes glinted as she said, "Relax Paul, we were going to have drop the belt the next night anyway. I just sent a message that in my face is the wrong place for your girlfriend to be."

"I don't want all of this aggro between the two of you."

She shrugged, "Neither do I but as I said if she keeps getting in my face there's only going to be one winner."

Paul realised he didn't have much of a position to argue from as Joanie had been deliberately trying to piss Stephanie off. He said, "So we can still work together with no problems?"

She moved closer to him and said, "The problems are yours Paul. I believe I've made myself perfectly clear to you."

He knew exactly what that was supposed to mean, "Steph I'm engaged to Jo."

Stephanie whispered, "I know, but does she make you feel like this?" She reached up and kissed him. She let it linger even longer than she had outside of her room that night. He felt that incredible lust again for the first time in weeks and it was even greater than before.

As she pulled away Stephanie said, "Don't answer that Paul, I don't need you to." He watched her walk away and he didn't know how he managed not to grab her and kiss her again.

He wanted her so badly that it hurt.

* * *

><p>Stephanie walked away with a smile on her face. She would get what she wanted in the end. She was a McMahon, she didn't take no for an answer from anyone.<p>

She would take Paul for herself and then she would make sure Joanie was out of the picture for good. It would take time to get to the point where her dad would fire the bitch but Stephanie had already started to work on it and she would keep at it no matter how long it took.

She had noted the look on Paul's face when she had just kissed him. He certainly hadn't expected it and she felt certain he wanted more. She wouldn't give him more though unless he came for it himself. She needed him to realise how much he wanted her and act on it himself.

Of course if he didn't she would have to keep working on him but she didn't think it would have to come to that. If only he wasn't with that ugly bitch things would be so much easier!

They would be together eventually, she had no doubt about it.

* * *

><p>Paul was psyched up for his match. This was the Armageddon pay per view and he was in the main event against Vince McMahon. Not only that but he would be walking out with Stephanie when it was over.<p>

He hadn't let Joanie's miserable mood spoil his preparations. She'd been bitching about having to drop her title to Jericho. She'd actually gone and bitched to Vince about it too and he'd compromised with her and come up with some stupid angle about Jo and Chris both being the Intercontinental champion. What was that stupid nonsense?

He knew it would piss Stephanie off too when she found out. As he thought about Stephanie he saw her approaching, walking next to her dad just as she had been the first time he had seen her. She looked gorgeous but she looked so much better when she wasn't in character.

As they reached Paul Vince asked, "You ready?"

Paul said, "You bet. Good luck."

The two men hugged and slapped each other on the back. After this was done Vince walked off, Paul guessed to get a last minute drink of water or something. Stephanie smiled and said, "We walk back here together. I can't wait."

He grinned, "Me either. You know everyone is going to hate you? The fans I mean."

She grinned now too, "Good, this character bores me to death."

After a few seconds of silence Stephanie said, "Don't I get one of those hugs for luck?"

He said, "You need luck to sit in the front row and watch?"

She pouted playfully, "Without my part at the end this is all a waste of time. I'm the most important one here."

He laughed, "Is that right?"

"Don't you forget it."

He surprised her by hugging her, "Well then, good luck."

She considered kissing him but no, not now. Especially not with her dad nearby.

She realised it was a wise decision as Vince reappeared, "Ok, here we go."

Stephanie was announced first as she walked through the curtain. It had begun.

* * *

><p>The ending of the match worked out perfectly as they had planned it. As Stephanie crouched over her dad pretending to check if he was ok Paul made like he was going to hit her with the hammer also.<p>

Stephanie looked around and caught him. She stood and looked at him in apparent shock but all of a sudden she smiled at him. Paul heard a guy in the crowd yelling, "Yeah! Yeah!" as everyone else groaned in disgust. Maybe he had seen it coming? Or maybe he just wanted Steph to be with Triple H? Stephanie walked over and hugged him and Paul feigned surprise.

Stephanie raised his hand in victory and they paraded around the ring before eventually heading for the back. After they got through the curtain Stephanie began to laugh. He grinned and asked, "What?"

She said excitedly, "Nothing, that was just great! This character is going to be so much fun!"

Her excitement and enthusiasm was contagious and he grinned too, "I can't wait for tomorrow?"

She said, "What about tonight? Let's celebrate! Let's have a drink?"

He said dejectedly, "I'd love to Steph but you know I can't. I have to go back to the hotel to Jo and her bad mood."

She pointed out helpfully, "You don't 'have' to do anything Paul."

Paul seemed to be considering it but then they were interrupted by Vince walking back through the curtain. Paul walked over and hugged him and asked, "You ok?"

Vince assured them both that he was but he needed to get the cut on his head looked at, he'd done a good blade job on himself. Stephanie give him a kiss on the cheek and he walked away.

Before she could say anything more to Paul he said, "I need to get my shower out of the way and get out of here Steph. I'll see you tomorrow night?"

She tried her best to look as sad as possible, "Oh ok. Goodnight"

He turned and walked away. She silently raged, "God damn it, I thought I had him."


	14. Chapter 14

As Paul headed back to his locker room he found himself wishing that he had accepted Stephanie's offer to go out for a drink. He realised that he was really starting to lose control of his life. He had proposed to Jo and he really wanted to be with her but there was no doubt about it any more, he wanted Stephanie too.

He wasn't enough of a bastard to cheat on Jo with Stephanie, he wouldn't let that happen. He would just have to tell Stephanie that they couldn't be together no matter what she wanted. It just couldn't happen.

He thought, "But can you actually tell her? Things never work out the the way you've planned when you talk to her."

He got a surprise as he walked into his locker room, "Jo? I thought you would have left by now?"

She smiled, "No I stayed to watch your match. I know what it meant to you and I'm sorry about earlier. I'm sorry about a lot of things."

Paul was surprised to say the least, "What brought this on?"

"I was thinking about what happened the other night. You tried your best to avoid McMahon outside of your work commitments and then I went and pissed her off. At least it showed us both what a vindictive bitch she can be..."

"You're starting again Jo."

"Sorry. I'm not going to pretend that I don't hate her but I'm going to stay away from her. We both are, ok?"

Paul nodded, "Sure, I can do that. So did you enjoy the match?"

Joanie didn't consider how quickly the subject had been changed, "Yes, you were amazing as usual."

"Thank you."

She said, "Let's get out of here."

Paul pointed out, "I didn't shower yet."

"Exactly, let's get out of here and we can shower together."

Paul grabbed his bag from the floor as he grinned, "That's an excellent idea."

As they hurried out of the building Paul suddenly had an image in his head of what Stephanie might look like in the shower. He imagined standing in front of her as the water and shampoo ran over her breasts. Little droplets of water...

"Paul you walked past your car you dummy," Joanie ruined it by interrupting.

He turned round, embarrassed at what he had just been thinking about. He mumbled, "Sorry. I was uh... thinking about the match."

* * *

><p>Paul knew he needed help big time, this was getting out of hand. He was actually fantasizing about Stephanie now. Well not now but... it happened again. Telling himself not to fantasize about her made him do it again. This was crazy. It hadn't been twenty four hours yet since the first time and it had happened what... five times?<p>

It was always the same fantasy, he was with her in the shower and she was standing there with the water running over her breasts. He liked the way the water droplets and shampoo running over them seemed to make them even more attractive than they would usually be. That shampoo that she always used that smelled so good. He could smell it now just by thinking about it, her perfume too.

It wasn't as if he actually even knew what her breasts even looked like. Sure some of those tops she wore didn't leave his imagination far to go but boy had it gone. He told himself, "Fucking stop it! This is wrong, you're engaged to Jo!"

Then a worrying thought hit him, since this had started to happen he hadn't actually seen Stephanie. What was going to happen when he did?

* * *

><p>"I'm not doing it dad, you're only trying to make me do it to piss me off!" Stephanie huffed as she stood in front of her dad in his office at the arena.<p>

"Swearing now Steph? Let's try and calm down."

She ranted, "You want me to calm down? No problem, as I said I'm not doing it so change your mind and I'll calm down. Simple."

Vince insisted, "I'm not changing my mind and you are doing it. I'm not telling you as your dad I'm telling you as your boss, now shut up."

Stephanie whined, "Why? Why me?"

"Because you need to learn you can't come in here and give me your puppy dog eyes and have me change our creative plans for people just because you don't like them."

Stephanie whined even louder, "But you agreed to take the title from her."

"Yes I did because you always manage to work me so well when you come to me like that but I realised I was wrong so I changed it."

Stephanie huffed, "And if that wasn't bad enough you have to insist that I go out in the ring with while she's holding the title and announce this pathetic angle that you've put together that her and Jericho are both the champion? I mean are you serious? It's the stupidest crap I've ever heard."

Vince began to lose his temper, "I'm not discussing this any more Stephanie. That's the angle, you have the script and you're doing it. If you don't give it your best out there... well I'm warning you."

Stephanie hissed, "Fine!" She stormed out and slammed the door.

It didn't surprise Vince, he'd seen this enough times before. He'd hoped it wouldn't happen at work but then she had often reacted this way whenever she didn't get her own way. She would calm down soon.

Vince had just managed to focus his thoughts back onto something productive when there was a knock on the door. He angrily yelled, "What?"

The door opened and Paul hesitantly walked in, "Is this a bad time?"

Vince rubbed his temple with two fingers, "No... sorry. My daughter is driving me crazy. I'm sure you'll find out soon enough."

Paul thought, "Buddy I'm already there." Instead he said, "I was actually looking for her. Where is she?"

Vince barked out a single laugh, "Right now? Throwing things around her locker room would be my guess."

Paul asked, "You had an argument?"

Vince said, "Not really, she's just being a princess."

"She's not going to be like it all night is she? I've been looking forward to tonight."

Vince's laugh was more genuine this time, "I've got ten bucks that says she's back in here in less than five minutes."

Paul smiled, "What?"

Vince goaded him, "Come on get your money out. It's ten after the hour exactly. In less than five minutes she will be back in here."

Paul had seen Stephanie when she was irritated so he dreaded to think what she would be like if she was angry enough to be throwing things around. He said, "I'll take your money."

Vince grinned, "I have another ten that says that the first word she says when she comes in here is daddy."

Paul laughed, "No way. I'm not betting against that."

They chatted as they waited and Paul kept checking his watch. With less than a minute to go the door opened and Stephanie walked in, "What are you doing here?"

Paul laughed, "God damn it! We would have been even!"

Vince held out his hand and Paul slapped a ten into it. Vince said, "Too easy."

Stephanie demanded, "Did you make a bet about me?"

Vince said innocently, "No, Paul was just getting to know you a little better."


	15. Chapter 15

"Tell me what bet you made," Stephanie demanded as she walked along the hallway next to Paul.

Paul sensed that this subject wasn't going to be dropped until he confessed so he admitted, "Your dad told me that you threw a fit and stormed out of his office but he said you would be back in less than five minutes to try and... well I've never seen you angry but..."

"You're going the right way about it."

Paul laughed and said, "Ohhhh making threats now?"

He could tell she was trying not to but after a few seconds she laughed too. She took him by surprise by saying, "You should have came out last night Paul."

He looked at her as he wished that he had done, "I missed a good night huh?"

"We both did, I spent the night in my room. We could have had so much fun."

"I'm sorry Steph, I would have loved to come for a drink," he said honestly.

Stephanie was tempted to lecture him about letting his psycho girlfriend control his life but she decided to say nothing. She repeated what he had just said in her head and hoped that it was what she thought it was. Was he starting to admit his feelings for her?

If only she could make him feel for her what she felt for him. She wanted him so badly, it was torture seeing him with that piece of trash, even to hear him mention her. Why had he proposed to her, the stupid bastard?

Paul assumed that as she had stopped talking she regretted bringing up the subject. He returned to the original one, "So... tell me what you were angry about?"

He was looking at her as he asked the question and he saw those beautiful eyes flash with anger for a second as she thought back to whatever it was. She said, "Just leave it Paul. We're here now anyway."

Paul asked, "Where's here? You didn't say where we were going?"

She smiled at him, "I actually said it was a surprise. If I told you what the surprise was it wouldn't be a surprise would it?"

He grinned, "Ok so what is it?"

She said, "Open the door."

They were standing next to a door, Paul wondered what surprise she could possibly have waiting for him behind it? Maybe it led to the showers? If only.

He opened it and saw that it was a spacious office with expensive furniture. There was a huge leather couch and a table and on the table was an ice bucket with a bottle of champagne in it. Paul was confused, "What's this?"

She shoved him inside, "It's our office. At least it's our office as far as filming is concerned. After dad 'walks out' tonight we're in charge, so we need an office."

Paul smiled, "This is great! Vince even got champagne for us?"

She giggled, "No, idiot. I had that delivered."

Paul sat down and relaxed into the comfortable couch. Stephanie stood over him with her hands on her hips, "Do you expect me to pour it as well?"

"Sorry Steph, sit down." He reached over and opened the bottle and poured some for each of them into the glasses that were ready and waiting.

He handed one to her and she giggled, "To the happy couple."

Paul joined in with the game, "To my beautiful wife."

They clinked glasses and drank as Stephanie's mind ran wild, "He just called me beautiful. Oh my god."

* * *

><p>Paul had realised as soon as he said it that he had called her beautiful and he felt like such a bastard. He lay awake in bed in the hotel that night next to Joanie and he was angry with himself. He was engaged to Jo, what the hell was he doing telling another woman that she was beautiful? His parents had raised him to be better than that. He was sure there were plenty of guys out there who would just give in to temptation and go have fantastic sex with Stephanie and not give a shit that they had been unfaithful but that wasn't him. He loved Jo and he couldn't live with himself if he did something like that behind her back.<p>

He felt bad enough that he kept having that fantasy about Stephanie but he couldn't exactly help it, he didn't choose for it to happen. He told himself yet again that he had promised to keep his relationship with Stephanie strictly professional. He wouldn't accept any offers she made to go for a drink or to do anything else outside of work with her. He had to get her out of his head somehow.

* * *

><p>Two weeks passed by and Stephanie was going out of her mind, what did she have to do to get through to this guy? She was sure that he wanted her but he just wouldn't act on it. It was infuriating and these last couple of weeks she sensed that he was trying to distance himself from her again. It was ever since that night she had bought the champagne and he had called her beautiful. Maybe he felt guilty as he thought about his stupid girlfriend? God damn her!<p>

She made a decision, tonight's Smackdown was the last show before Christmas and she would give him something to think about over the holidays.

After the show was over and it was time to their separate ways Paul stood to leave their office and said, "I need to go find Jo, Steph. We're flying out tonight so I can't hang around. Merry Christmas."

Stephanie stood and made sure she was very close to him, "You didn't get me a gift?"

Paul was embarrassed, he deliberately hadn't bought her a gift, "Uh... no. Did you get me one?"

"I didn't buy anything but I do have something for you."

Paul looked confused, "What does that mean?"

She looked up at him and hoped that he liked the way she looked in her Santa hat, she wanted him to remember this, "Merry Christmas Paul." She kissed him and for a few seconds he began to return it. "Yes! Finally!" she thought as she closed her eyes and began to enjoy the kiss.

But then he pulled away and hurriedly said, "I can't do this Steph, I have to go."

He practically ran out of the office and closed the door with a bang.

She flopped down onto the couch in frustration. At least she had given him something to think about but the problem was that it was now likely to be that he wanted to avoid her. She cursed at her own foolishness for throwing herself at him like that, "Shit!"


	16. Chapter 16

Stephanie knew that jealousy was an ugly thing but she felt it anyway. She had blown it big time by kissing Paul on that Thursday night. He had returned from the Christmas break and told her in no uncertain terms that it couldn't happen again. He'd said that he didn't want to be with her, he wanted to be with Jo and if the two of them couldn't work together without Stephanie flirting with him or even worse kissing him without warning then he would ask Vince to write him out of the storyline.

She was pissed off both with Paul and herself. She would be the first to admit that she hadn't had many boyfriends in her life and she certainly hadn't attempted to take a man from another woman before but even so she would have imagined herself being able to make a better job of it than this.

The worst thing was that she knew Paul wanted her. She knew it! Not only that, they had to do segments together for TV where they would hold each other and kiss each other and it killed her that they couldn't do it for real. She was sure that all she needed was to get him alone outside of work again, she remembered how they had both enjoyed the meal in Vegas. Maybe she should have just invited him into her room that night?

She was beginning to lose hope that she would ever get another chance to try and work her magic on him but then out of nowhere an opportunity presented itself. She was riding in the limo with her dad listening intently to the conversation he was having on his cell phone, his end of the conversation at least.

When he had finished she asked, "What's that dad?"

"Shawn's let me down for Monday night."

Stephanie pretended not to know what that meant but she was already aware of exactly what it meant and what she was going to do. "I can come up with a plan quickly when I need to," she boasted to herself silently. She asked, "Let you down for what?"

"He was supposed to be at WWF New York on Monday night but he's just cried off, now I'll have to find someone else to do it."

WWF New York was the company's own restaurant and nightclub in Times Square. Every Monday and Thursday fans could pay an entrance fee and watch the show there and the deal was sweetened by having one of the superstars there for each event. If Shawn Michaels wasn't going to go then Stephanie knew who could, "Why don't I go with Paul?"

Vince was scrolling through the contacts in his phone, "Huh?"

"I said me and Paul can go."

Vince sighed, "Steph we need you guys on Raw, this is obvious."

"Why is it? We can write it that we run the show from there, god knows you run enough segments with whoever is there to hype the place every week. Besides... me and Paul are two of the top characters right now, who better to push the place?"

She could tell he was thinking about it. She twisted the knife, "It's not as if I've asked for a night off since I've been here, plus I'll still be working half of the night anyway."

After a few moments Vince said, "I need you guys on Raw but... I'll tell you what I'll do. Raw is coming from New York anyway so you can both go over there after the show and you can eat or drink whatever you like all night on me. Fair enough?"

Stephanie decided that this would work as well as her idea, "Thank you daddy."

Vince closed his eyes briefly as he heard that. His daughter wasn't as clever as she thought. Whenever he heard the word daddy he knew that she either wanted something from him or had just succeeded in getting something from him. The question was what exactly had she wanted? Maybe it was just a night off as she had said. He dismissed it.

Stephanie realised that she still had a problem. What if Paul refused to go with her? She decided that a night out together was what they both needed, it was the only way she could break through the stupid defences he was trying to build against her in his own head. She knew he wanted her, she just knew it. So how to convince him to go? She decided that it was simple... lie.

* * *

><p>Paul was miserable. He felt like he had lost control of his life. He was engaged to a woman who he had loved for years but he had a feeling somewhere in the back of his mind that this was no longer the case. Not only that, he was becoming obsessed with Stephanie. There was no other way to describe it and no reason to try and deny it to himself, that would be stupid at this point.<p>

He kept having the same fantasy about her over and over. He ran through it again in his head. He wasn't sure why his fantasy involved standing and watching Stephanie shower. If he was really in a shower with her he'd do more than that.

He told himself that this was stupid. She should just leave Jo and be with Stephanie, it was obvious that it what they both wanted but he couldn't do it. He loved Jo and she didn't deserve to get hurt like that plus his parents had raised him to be better than that. His mom especially would go wild, he couldn't even imagine...

"Are you sure you're not ill?" Joanie interrupted his thoughts. She continued, "You look like death."

He rubbed his face with his hands and sighed, "I'm just not sleeping well."

"Don't I know it? You've been in and out of bed all night for the last few nights and last night you were making noises in your sleep," she laughed, "it sounded like you were dreaming about fucking me."

Paul couldn't remember the dream but he considered it a safe bet that it wasn't Jo that he'd been dreaming about. He thought, "What if I say Stephanie's name in my sleep? I guess that would save me from having to tell Jo that I don't want to be with her."

* * *

><p>Stephanie waited for Paul to arrive in their office. She checked her watch and confirmed that he was late.<p>

A few minutes later he walked in and sat down next to her as he said tiredly, "Hey Steph."

Seeing how bad he looked gave her an idea how to go about talking him into the night out. She said, "I guess my dad was right."

He looked at her with a confused look on his face, "How's that?"

"Sorry, I meant to tell you later. I mentioned to dad about how long it's been since I had a night off and he offered us both the chance to go to WWF New York on Monday night after the show and it's all going to be on him. He said you were looking a little burned out. I told him not to be silly but to be honest you do look a little run down."

Paul considered how to respond. He knew it was a bad idea for his relationship with Jo to spend time with Stephanie outside of work but it was only a meal and a drink or two, right? Besides which if Vince had made the offer because he thought that he looked burned out it would seem not only rude but stupid too if he rejected it.

He made his decision, "Maybe a chance to unwind wouldn't be a bad thing. This is just a meal and a few drinks though Steph."

Innocently she said, "I know that, what else would it be?"

They both sat there pretending that they weren't imagining it being a whole lot more.


	17. Chapter 17

Stephanie knew that tonight would probably be her final chance. She checked her hair, make up and her outfit in the mirror and she was happy. She looked her best and she was going to try her hardest to make Paul act on his feelings for her. She knew that she had to play it perfectly, if she pushed too hard or too early he would run back to Joanie again.

Stephanie put on her leather jacket and left her hotel room. She rode the elevator to the lobby and expected to see Paul waiting for her but he wasn't there. She hoped that he hadn't decided to back out as she stood in the lobby and waited.

* * *

><p>Paul told himself again that this was a bad idea. He remembered the last time he'd had a meal with Stephanie and what had happened afterwards. He knew that if she kissed him again he wasn't going to be able to resist her.<p>

He put on his leather jacket and left his hotel room. As he stood in the elevator he thought, "I can spend a night having dinner and a couple of drinks with a work colleague without anything happening, can't I?"

The doors opened and he walked out of the elevator into the lobby and saw her waiting for him. She must have sensed him approaching as she turned and smiled at him. He smiled back as he thought again, "Really bad idea. One smile and I want to kiss her already. God help me."

Stephanie said, "I thought it was going to be a no show. Come on I'm starving! There's a car waiting outside."

Paul said, "I'm hungry too and I definitely need a drink."

* * *

><p>As they climbed out of the car as close to WWF New York as they could get Stephanie exclaimed, "Wow look at this place, look how busy it is!"<p>

Paul saw that she was right, there were people everywhere. It was going to be tough to even get near the place. Fortunately security were somehow ready for their arrival. Paul thought, "Maybe the car driver called ahead?"

They were soon escorted inside amid screams from fans who wanted pictures and signatures. It wasn't much less chaotic inside. Stephanie had to speak quite loudly to make sure that Paul heard her, "Let's just have a drink and get out of here. We can eat somewhere quieter."

Paul said, "Are you sure? Your dad said whatever we bought in here was on him."

They were shown to a table which had been reserved for them. As Stephanie took her jacket off she said, "I also promised that the next time we had dinner it would be on me. We'll head back to the hotel and eat there."

As she sat Paul noticed two things, firstly that it hadn't been a question and secondly that the top she was wearing gave him a great view from where he was standing. He took his jacket off and put it over the back of his chair. He said, "Well if we're not stopping here we can't get you a bottle of wine, I'll get you something."

She raised her eyebrows, "You want to choose my drink?"

Paul laughed, "What, you're happy for me to choose your food but not your drink?"

She giggled, "Ok, go for it," then she added, "If you put anything in it you're fired."

He laughed as he walked away.

He returned a few minutes later with two beers and put one in front of her. She asked, "You bought me beer? Seriously?"

He grinned as he sat down, "Don't tell me you're too girly to drink beer?"

She giggled again, "Too girly? I'll drink mine before you drink yours!"

He said, "You're on. Drink on three?"

She nodded and he said, "Wait is one, two, drink or one, two, three, drink?"

She picked up her beer, "Three then drink, you count."

"Ok... one, two, three," he drank his beer as quickly as he could and banged his glass down on the table, "Beat you," as he did so he noticed that she had made no attempt to join in the game.

She grinned as she sipped her beer, "Idiot."

He grinned back, "Spoilsport."

She laughed, "You actually thought I was going to do that?"

He shrugged with the grin still on his face, "It was your idea."

She smiled sweetly at him and he fought the desperate urge to kiss her. He said, "I'm uh... going to get another one, you'll be there forever with that."

As he walked away she thought, "There it is, I saw it in his eyes. Tonight's going to be the night."

* * *

><p>They took their seats at a table in the restaurant back at the hotel and Stephanie said, "At least we can hear ourselves think in here."<p>

Paul handed her a menu and saw that this time she opened it and started to read. He figured that buying the beer had been a mistake but at least he wasn't going to have to run the risk with ordering her food this time. He decided to go with the steak, it was his favourite thing to eat. He asked, "What are you going to have?"

She said, "They have lamb, I can't turn that down."

He said, "And red wine, right?"

She grinned, "You know me so well."

He signalled to a server and ordered. As the server walked away Stephanie said, "So last time you made me tell you all about myself, you're up."

He spent the next half hour telling her about himself and answering the questions she asked. She seemed genuinely interested in his story which for some reason he hadn't expected. Clearly she wasn't just here to play games. Eventually he reached the point where he had met Joanie and Stephanie seemed to lose interest in the conversation. She changed the subject, "I remember the first time we saw each other."

This surprised him, "You do?"

The server picked this of all moments to deliver the food. As he started eating he realising how annoyed he was that the moment had been lost and he said, "Tell me what you remember?"

She looked at him slyly and finished chewing her mouthful of lamb before she answered, "I remember pretending to make coffee for myself and my dad so that I had an excuse to talk to the hot guy I saw making one for himself."

His eyes widened, "Steph!"

She shrugged, "You asked what I remembered. What do you remember?"

He decided that she had been honest so he couldn't exactly lie. He ate another mouthful of food and said, "That wasn't the first time I saw you."

She sipped her wine and said, "Really? Tell me more."

He said, "I was standing talking to Sean and you walked past with your dad."

She looked mischievous, "I attracted your attention huh?"

Deciding that honesty was working out ok so far he said, "Yes you did."

Stephanie decided not to push any further, she had seen and heard what she wanted from him.

They spent the another hour talking and finishing dessert and the wine and eventually it was time to leave. Stephanie insisted on paying the bill as she had promised despite protests from Paul.

The entered the elevator and Paul asked, "You're on the top floor?"

"You know it." He pressed the button and she thought, "Please Paul, don't disappoint me now."

She sensed nervousness from him as they walked towards her room, she expected him to turn and leave at any second. She opened her door and turned to him, "I had a lovely night Paul, thank you."

He smiled nervously, "Me too and you paid for it so thank you."

She reached up and kissed him then said, "I guess this is goodnight?" Before he could answer she walked into her room but she didn't close the door.

He stood there with his head spinning. What a decision, what to do? Stay out of the room and be loyal to his fiancée and to everything he had promised himself or walk into the room where the girl of his dreams was ready and waiting for him and give in to what had obviously been her plan this whole time? He closed his eyes for a second and then opened them again.

He walked into the room and closed the door.


	18. Chapter 18

As he closed the door he felt the incredible lust burning inside of him even more than it ever had before and he told himself, "If you're going to do this just do it, don't give yourself a chance to back out."

So that was exactly what he did. He walked quickly over to Stephanie who had taken off her jacket and had turned to face him as she heard the door close. She began to say playfully, "Well hello..."

She was cut off as he grabbed her and pulled her tightly too him and kissed her. He wasn't sure if it was a further attempt to speak or a moan of pleasure that escaped her as their tongues began to battle but it made him grow harder and he felt himself pressing into her stomach.

She felt it too and pulled away from the kiss and said, "Oh Paul..."

"Shut up Steph," he forced his mouth onto hers again, loving the taste of her. Suddenly he felt his belt being opened and then her hand was inside his jeans rubbing his already hard length through his underwear. She moaned again and Paul could tell that she liked what she felt as realised that if he wasn't careful it wasn't going to get as far as sex, he'd wanted her so badly for so long that he felt as thought he was set to explode at any moment.

Without warning he picked her up with both of his hands under her very shapely and firm buttocks. He liked the way it felt in his hands and she liked the way his big, powerful hands dug into her. She involuntarily squealed.

He carried over to the bed but she had wrapped her legs around him which thwarted his plan of placing her straight down onto it. Instead she did something that he had never experienced before, she bit his neck. It hurt and he grunted in response to the pain but despite this she did it again.

He ignored the pain and climbed onto the bed with her legs still wrapped around him. When she had been placed on the bed she released her legs from around him and almost whispered, "Fuck me Paul, fuck me right now," and started kissing him again as he lowered himself on top of her.

He clumsily, almost desperately removed her underwear as the smell and taste of her intoxicated him. He'd never felt anything like this before. The sheer amount that he wanted this was incredible. He knew that very soon they wouldn't need to want each other any more.

He felt her warmth and wetness with his fingers and inserted two of them into her but she moaned again, "Just fuck me, do it now."

He was surprised that she seemed not to want any foreplay, maybe the whole evening had been foreplay for her as much as it had for him. It was plain that she was desperate for him to enter her but there was something he had to do first. Keeping her waiting would be no bad thing.

He'd fantasized about them so many times, he just had to get at those breasts. He roughly removed them from her bra and she lent an assist by removing it and her top and threw them away. He moaned with pleasure at the sight of them, it met more than every expectation he'd had. He began to suck on her nipples alternating between her breasts as she began moaning again. She felt herself quivering as he did this and she was desperate for him now.

Her moans were driving him wild and she insisted again, loudly this time, "Just fuck me!"

Needed no further instruction he slid himself into her and she moaned, "Paul," as she felt the incredible fullness of him which was like nothing she had experienced before.

He thrust himself into her harder and harder as he grunted in pleasure. She grabbed his head, forcing him to stay where he was so that she could continue to kiss him. The bed creaked and banged against the wall as he went as far into her as he could and her moans continued and eventually rose to near screams as she came. As she did so she dug the nails of one hand into his chest and tore a series of lines that were at least four inches long in his skin with her nails. He cried out in pain as he felt her shaking in her orgasm and he couldn't hold himself back any longer, he exploded into her with a loud gutteral moan.

She moaned once more and then it was over. He removed himself from her and rolled over to lie next to her. They both lay there sweating and panting for a long moment before she turned to face him.

They put an arm around each other and she attempted to talk again, "Paul I..."

Paul had already started to feel guilty that he'd just cheated on Joanie as he had been lying there and he cut her off, "Please don't say anything."

* * *

><p>The sunlight that streamed through the window was very bright for the time of year and it hurt Paul's eyes as he opened them. He turned to face in the other direction and saw an empty pillow. He realised that it was Stephanie who should be there, he was still in her room.<p>

He'd actually done it, he'd slept with Stephanie. He'd cheated on Jo. Luckily he'd had the foresight to lie to her that he was heading home and not staying in New York last night. He thought, "Why did you do that if you didn't intend anything to happen with Stephanie? Just to be on the safe side I guess. It's a good thing that I did though..."

His train of thought was interrupted by a feeling of pain. He looked down at his chest and saw three red scratch marks in his chest with another fainter one next to it. He realised why she had done it, "You wanted to mark me didn't you Steph? That's why you bit me too. That'll give me something to explain to Jo, right?" Oh shit... I'm going to have to tell her. How can I not with these scratches on me?"

He closed his eyes as he realised that his relationship with Joanie was almost certainly over. Stephanie had seen to that by leaving him no choice but to tell her. There was no way that Jo would forgive him for this. As he lay with his eyes closed imagining how Jo was going to react he found his mind drifting, "What's that sound? Is that running water?" He realised,, "Steph's taking a shower."

Without any hesitation he leapt out of bed and headed towards the bathroom door. He'd thought about this so many times there was no way he was passing this opportunity up... as long as she hadn't locked the door.

He tried the handle and the door opened. He walked in and she looked around the curtain and giggled, "Don't you even knock?"

He threw off his underwear and got into the shower with her and wrapped his arms around her, "No."

As the warm water flowed over both of them she looked at the damage she had done to his chest and said, "Oh that looks painful, I'm sorry."

He said quietly, "Bullshit, you did that on purpose."

She gave a mischievous smile that he found insanely attractive, "Yes I did." It was impossible to be angry with her.

He could already smell the shampoo but knew what he wanted and he ordered, "Wash your hair."

She looked into his eyes and he noted her surprise as she said, "What?"

"You heard, wash your hair."

She grinned nervously, "I already washed..."

He insisted, "So do it again."

She did as he asked and his fantasy became reality as the water and shampoo ran over her breasts. She noticed where his attention was focussed and teased, "You like that huh? What if I do this?" She turned her back on him.

He got as close to her as he could and his hardness pressed into her lower back as he wrapped one arm around her and used the other hand to play with her breasts. He said, "Then you'll force me to do this."

She purred, " I can live with that."

He felt himself getting harder as she began to moan again. He placed his head on top of hers and breathed in the smell of her shampoo. He used the other hand to insert two fingers into her and she moved with his motions as he felt her getting warmer and wetter. When he thought that she was ready he said, "Tell me to fuck you again."

She turned around and looked longingly at him and he realised how good she was at this as she purred, "Fuck me Paul, please fuck me."

He wasn't sure why hearing her say it turned him on so much, a woman talking dirty to him had never been a thing for him before but when she did it it drove him wild.

He picked her up with his hands under her buttocks as he had before and as she wrapped her legs around him again as he slid himself into her as he forced her back against the tiles. She moaned as he thrust into her and he said, "Talk dirty some more."

She moaned, "You'll have to fuck me harder if you want me to do that." As he thrust harder and harder she kept moaning, "Harder," into his ear. She had to stop doing it as she approached orgasm and instead she screamed. As it had the first time this caused him to unload into her with a groan.

He tried to regain his breath as he allowed her back onto her feet and she kissed him again and demanded, "Get out of my shower."

He did as he was told and dried himself with a towel. He guessed that the pleasure was now over, next would be the pain. He would have to tell Jo that he'd cheated on her. As he put his underwear back on he said, "I'm going to have to tell Jo, Steph."

She said sweetly from the other side of the curtain, "Ok."

He sighed, "Not ok. She's going to leave me."

He heard, "You didn't seem worried about that just now."

"Well I'm worried about it now. I'm not going to see her until tomorrow night but I'll have to tell her then."

He heard, "So tell her. I'll be here..."

He cut her off, "Don't Steph, this isn't a game to me."

She looked around the curtain and said, "It's not a game for me either. I want to be with you."

She had hoped that he would repeat the sentiment back to her but instead he walked out of the bathroom and closed the door. She got out of the shower and dried off but by the time she walked back into the room it was empty, Paul had gone.

She dressed and sat down on the edge of the bed with a sigh. She raged at Joanie silently, "Leave him you bitch, just leave him. Get away from my man and stay away!"


	19. Chapter 19

Paul examined the bruising on his neck where Stephanie had bitten him in the mirror as he drove to pick Joanie up from the airport. He thought, "You didn't need your little insurance policy on my chest Steph, she's going to notice that as soon as she sees me. Thanks a lot."

He pulled the collar up on his coat and although he looked like an asshole it did cover up what Stephanie had done. Not that there was any point. What was he going to do, keep his coat on all night? He thought, "I'll be lucky to make it back to the hotel without her seeing it. I want to at least get to the hotel so that I can tell her in private. She's going to blow up big time. She has every right to of course, what was I thinking? I don't even know what I want... Jo, Steph or neither of them. Maybe that would be easier."

He got to the airport just before her flight's landing time and waited in the arrivals area. He kept nervously checking that his collar was up and he realised that as he drove them to the hotel the bruising would on her side. He thought, "Maybe just tell her as soon as we get in the car... or kill myself before she arrives. Too late, here she is now."

She smiled, "Hey, I missed you."

They hugged and kissed without her noticing anything and Paul said, "I missed you too."

He took her bag and as they left the building she giggled, "What's with the fashion statement?"

"Huh?"

"Your coat, have you seen yourself?"

He thought, "I'm fucked," as he said, "No fashion statement, it's cold."

She said, "No it isn't. Are you feeling ok, you look... I don't know."

He thought, "Stressed is what I look," as he said, "I'm ok. How are your family?"

They reached the car as she told him about how her family were and what she had done the day before. He tossed her bag into the trunk and got into the car next to her. He wanted to tell her but he couldn't make himself do it so he just drove.

It didn't take long. As he drove they made idle conversation for a few minutes until she laughed at a lame joke that he had made and turned to look at him, "That was... what's that?"

He thought, "Oh god."

"Paul... what's that?"

"What's what?"

Her voice already contained anger, "Don't what's what me. Your neck."

"Jo I..."

"Don't tell me you've been with someone?"

He knew that there was no other option now but to tell the truth. He mumbled, "I slept with Stephanie."

He expected an explosion but what he got hurt him even more. Instead of furious she sounded heartbroken, "Oh you bastard. You complete bastard."

"I'm sorry Jo, I..."

She had started to cry, "Don't... just shut up. I don't want to hear your fake apologies or your bullshit."

He tried again, "I really am..."

She cut him off again, sounding devastated, "And with her too. You swore to me that you would stay away from her. I knew you would do this and yet you swore to me. I saw how you looked at her and I knew. You proposed to me! And then you go and fuck her in some... hotel room?"

He said nothing and she demanded, "Was it in her hotel room?"

"Yes."

She demanded, "Once?"

He pleaded, "Don't do this Jo."

She screamed through her tears, "Was it once? Tell me the truth, surely I deserve that at least?"

He closed his eyes for as long as he could get away with considering that he was driving before admitting with a sigh, "Twice."

She was still crying, "You unimaginable bastard."

He knew another attempt to apologise would be a waste of time so he just drove and the silence after she had stopped crying was torture. Eventually she said, "It's over Paul. I can never trust you again. You swore to me that you would stay away from her and even after you proposed to me you did this."

Paul said, "I don't want to lose you Jo."

She still sounded hurt instead of angry, "Well you should have thought about that before you went into her room. It's over Paul. Drop me at the hotel and stay away from me."

He pleaded again, "Don't do this..."

"I didn't do this, you did."

He couldn't argue with that and he knew by the way that she said it that she had made her decision, "I'm sorry, even if you leave me I'm sorry."

She said, "I don't care about your apologies, this is the worst thing you could have possibly done to hurt me. Take this and give it to your slut." She had taken off her engagement ring and she dropped it into his lap.

"Can't we at least talk about this?"

"No Paul. I already told you I'll never trust you again, you make me sick. If you want to talk to someone talk to her."

They completed the rest of the drive in a very uncomfortable silence. When he stopped the car she got out as quickly as possible and went to get her bag from the trunk. Paul got out of the car and as she removed her bag from the trunk he said, "Please let's at least talk."

She looked at him and the pain in her eyes was plain to see as she said, "No Paul, it's over. Don't call me, don't come near me, ever. I hate you for this, you disgust me."

She stormed into the hotel and he knew that as she did so she also stormed out of his life. He slammed the trunk shut and cursed himself angrily, "Fucking asshole."

He entered the hotel and he knew that he had to book another room, he obviously wouldn't be sharing with Jo. Sadly he walked up to the reception desk and paid for a single room. As he did so something was nagging at him, "Why wasn't she angry? I can obviously understand why she was upset but no anger? Something is off."

Then it dawned on him, the anger wasn't going to be directed at him, it was being saved for someone else. He had to call Stephanie and warn her, this was going to be bad.

He walked into the bar and bought a beer. Today was definitely a day to get drunk but first he had to call Stephanie. He took out his phone and called her number. It rang for some time and he thought he wasn't going to get an answer but eventually he heard, "Hi Paul."

"Steph we need to talk."

She sounded irritated, "Is this about your disappearing act?"

He thought, "Jesus I'm getting shit from her too now?" He said, "I'm sorry, I was just... confused."

"Are you confused now?"

He sighed, "No, I told Jo and she said that it's over. She gave me the engagement ring back."

She didn't try not to sound pleased, "Really?"

Irritably he said, "You can at least try not to sound so happy about it."

"Why? I am happy about it. I told you that I want to be with you."

He avoided that by saying, "Steph listen to me, don't show up for Smackdown tomorrow please."

"What?"

"You heard, Jo's going to come for you and I'm afraid of what she might do. Don't show up and I'll speak to Vince..."

She surprised him by saying angrily, "Fuck her, if anyone's not going to show up it will be her. She tries anything with me I'll have her ass fired."

Paul closed his eyes and put his head in his free hand, "You're not going to listen to me on this are you?"

"No I'm not. I'll tell her exactly what happened Monday night and she can kiss my ass."

Paul said, "Don't say that I didn't warn you."

She asked, "Did you only call me to talk about your psycho ex girlfriend? You don't want to talk about us?"

His head was a mess and all he could say was, "Not now, not on the phone."

She said sweetly, "Then I'll see you tomorrow night."

He was about to say something more but he realised that the call had been ended. He signalled to the bartender for another beer. As he drank it he thought about how much he was dreading showing up for Smackdown. He thought, "Jo and Steph are going to go at each other, the whole locker room is going find out. Oh shit... Vince is going to find out, Shane is going to find out. Just kill me now."


	20. Chapter 20

Stephanie had made sure that she looked her best before she headed to the arena for Smackdown. This was partly for Paul and partly for Joanie, when Joanie saw her Stephanie wanted her to realise that she was nothing compared to her. It would satisfy her just to see the anger in Joanie's eyes and Stephanie would make sure that her own eyes conveyed the message, "Yes, I took your man from you, he's going to be mine now."

As the limo got closer the arena she began to lose this arrogance and confidence. She thought, "What if she really does come at me? If she gets hold of me she could do me some serious damage. The ugly bitch is huge. I'd better stay close to my dad, that's the best idea. Come at me then Jo and get yourself fired, please. I'll get you out of this company one day I swear."

They arrived at the arena and almost despite herself Stephanie felt nervous. She went to Vince's office with him and decided to stay there. If the shit was going to hit the fan it could do it in here.

* * *

><p>Paul arrived as late as he could get away with. His hangover had cleared but he still felt like crap, this night was going to be awful he just knew it. He didn't even make it as far as his locker room before his friend Sean approached him, "Dude is it true?"<p>

Paul thought, "Christ, it doesn't take long to around in this place does it?" He said, "Is what true?" as he continued walking to his locker room.

Sean walked alongside, "Don't try that with me, it's true isn't it? You and Stephanie!"

Paul sighed, "In my locker room Sean, not out here."

His friend laughed, "Right, that will make a difference. Everyone knows already. Jo must have told someone and you know what this place is like."

They walked into Paul's locker room and Sean said, "So tell me what it was like?"

"Huh?"

He laughed again, "Come on man! What was it like?"

Paul had had a lot of time to think in the bar last night and he'd decided that as Jo had left him there was nothing to stop him being with Stephanie any more. He thought, "Let's be honest, Steph is fully hot and she wants to be with me. Hell, she even said so herself."

He smiled at his friend and said, "I fucked Stephanie McMahon, what do you think it was like? It was fantastic. It was wonderful... wonderful."

Sean laughed even louder and slapped him on the shoulder, "Jesus, you've got it bad for her. Tell me more!"

Paul grinned, "We went out for dinner and she insisted that I walk her back to her room. She kissed me and left the door open so what was I supposed to do? I went in and fucked her. She likes to talk dirty too."

Sean eyebrows raised, "Really? Who would have thought? Don't tell me you sneaked out of her room in the night?"

Paul assured him, "Oh no, I woke up in her bed and then I went and fucked her in the shower."

Sean high fived Paul and said, "Legend!"

Paul said, "It's not all good, I had to tell Jo and she left me. I really didn't want to lose her man."

His friend pointed out, "Saves you from having to choose between them, if Stephanie is still alive."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I heard that Jo's in Vince's office and so is Stephanie, I bet there's blood everywhere."

Paul sighed, "Oh shit."

* * *

><p>Stephanie had waited for what seemed like hours for the inevitable. She'd gone from being confident to afraid as she sat in Vince's office. She just wanted it to be over with as she thought, "Let the bitch storm in here, run her mouth and then dad can throw her out. Dad's going to go wild at me too, he specifically told me never to date a wrestler. God damn it, it's not my fault that Paul's so hot."<p>

Shane walked into the office and initially Stephanie was glad to have the extra backup until he said, "Stephanie why have I just heard..."

She cut him off, "Shane not now please."

Vince asked, "Shane what's going on?"

As he said it the door flew open and although Stephanie couldn't see as Shane was standing in front of her she knew the awful sounding voice, "Where is she?"

As Shane moved over to block Jo from Stephanie it made Stephanie visible to Joanie, "You fucking little slut!"

As Joanie tried to get at Stephanie Vince helped Shane to restrain her. It was lucky that they were both there as either one would have struggled by themselves. Joanie was still screaming at Stephanie, "I'll rip your fucking head off!"

Vince yelled, "What the hell is this about? Calm down!"

Stephanie had the common sense to keep her mouth shut as Joanie raged, "Let me at her! Let me go!"

Shane yelled, "You're not hurting my sister! I know what she's done but you need to calm down!"

Joanie finally realised that she was in danger of losing her job as well as Paul because of Stephanie so she tried to calm down, "Alright... ok, let me go."

Vince said, "We'll let you go and we're going to sit down and talk and you're not going to do anything to Stephanie, are we clear on that?"

Joanie managed to say, "Yes."

The two men released her and as she had promised she sat down in the closest chair. Vince said, "Shane go outside and stop anyone coming in here."

Shane looked at Stephanie disapprovingly as he left and closed the door. Vince pulled a chair over and made sure he was sitting in between Joanie and his daughter just in case she blew up again. He demanded, "What the hell is going on?"

Joanie said bitterly, "She slept with Paul."

Vince's head snapped around to Stephanie, "You did what? Is that true?"

Stephanie wanted to sound pleased with herself but she knew that her dad was also going to be angry so she just said, "Yes."

As Vince said, "What did I tell you before you started here?" Joanie also said, "Fucking slut."

Vince turned back to Joanie, "That will do. I don't want to hear that word again."

Joanie said angrily, "If it wouldn't cost me my job you wouldn't hear any words. I'd tear her head off."

Vince warned her, "That's enough or it will cost you your job. No one's going to get hurt and no one's going to be throwing insults and abuse at each other. You stay away from each other. Is that clear to both of you?"

Joanie mumbled, "Yes."

Vince turned to Stephanie, "Stephanie?"

"Yes dad."

He ordered her, "Ok, get out of here. I'm going to talk to Jo and then I'm going to have Paul in here. Tonight we're going to talk."

Stephanie knew that she was going to get the riot act after the show but at least she had the chance to get out of the office and away from Jo. She knew exactly where she would go, it was time to talk to Paul.


	21. Chapter 21

"Well that was a real walk of shame," Stephanie thought as she reached Paul's locker room. Everyone she had seen in the hallway had stopped talking as she walked past which made it obvious what they were talking about. She also caught a few smirks on people's faces. She raged silently, "Who are you people to judge me? I hate this place sometimes. It's all that stupid bitch Joanie's fault running around here shouting her mouth off. If only I was in charge around her so that I could just fire her."

She heard laughter from inside Paul's locker room and she was pleased that at least he wasn't in a bad mood. She knocked and walked in and saw that Sean was in there. She also saw that Paul's neck had bruising on it. She thought, "Dad's going to love that. Why didn't I just scratch his chest damn it?" Sean said, "I'll leave you to it, hi Stephanie."

She smiled at him as he left and as the door closed Paul asked, "Are you ok? Sean said Jo was in the office with you?"

Stephanie had hoped that Paul would just kiss her or something but no such luck. She said, "Yeah she stormed in there swearing and throwing insults and threats around. My dad is talking with her now, hopefully he fires her but I doubt it."

Paul sighed, "I'd say he's more likely to fire me than her."

Stephanie hadn't considered that but she assured him, "Don't be stupid he can't fire you for sleeping with me."

Paul said mischievously, "Sleeping with you now is it? Not fucking you?"

She smiled and moved closer to him, "You like me to say that don't you? Ok, he can't fire you for coming into my room and fucking me or for busting into my bathroom and climbing in my shower and fucking me. Better?"

"Much better," he pulled her to him and they kissed. He was very forceful and she felt herself getting turned on but this couldn't happen here and certainly not now. She pulled her head away, "Not here Paul..."

He said, "Shut up," and kissed her again. She desperately wanted to let this go further but if someone walked in, especially if it was her dad or Shane... she pulled away again, "Paul stop. Not now, not here. If my dad walks in..."

Paul realised that she was right, despite how badly he wanted her he would have to wait. He released her reluctantly. He had made a decision though and he asked, "Your dad is pissed at you huh?"

She grimaced, "Yeah but not as much as he will be with you. You're in there next for the good news."

He sighed, "Great. Even if he doesn't fire me he's going to end our storyline and stop us working together. You do know that, right?"

She assured him, "Dad's not like that. He'll rage at you and threaten you about going near me again but he won't do anything that would make me unhappy."

"I wish I shared that confidence. Steph I..." His voice trailed off and she asked gently, "What?"

After a moment he said, "You really want to be with me? You're not playing games with me?"

"I already told you that I want to be with you and I meant it."

He pulled her to him, more gently this time, "I want to be with you too." They kissed again but it was less frantic and more passionate this time. Eventually she pulled away again and said, "You're sure that you're not upset about Jo? Don't tell me you want to be with me and then go back to her."

"I wouldn't do that Steph. I realised that I wasn't into that relationship for a while but I just couldn't bring myself to end it. She did that for me and to be honest it's a relief."

She stroked the bruised area on his neck and said, "Then I'm glad that I did this. She saw it, right?"

He sighed, "Yeah and your dad is going to see it to, so thanks for that."

She giggled, "Just keep your shirt on, your chest looks a lot worse."

He said playfully, "You're evil, you know that?"

She pouted, "Not me, I'm a good girl."

He said, "No you're not and I don't want you to be," and he kissed her again.

After a few moments she pulled away yet again, "It's not going to be easy with dad and Shane..."

He said, "So we won't get caught," and resumed kissing her.

They jumped apart as there was a knock on the door. Stephanie said, "You were saying?" Paul opened the door and saw Gerald Brisco who said, "Vince wants you in his office Paul."

Paul sighed, "Right, I'll be right there."

Brisco walked away and Stephanie said sweetly, "Good luck, I'll wait in our office."

Paul turned to her, "It's a good job you're worth all of this trouble you cause me."

As he walked out of the locker room she gave him one of those stunning smiles. It was so tempting to go back in there but no... it was time to go and get screamed at by Vince.

* * *

><p>As he knocked on Vince's door he thought, "What do I say?" He decided that he would say as little as possible, "Just stand there and take it and then get out of here."<p>

He walked in as expected Vince looked angry. He sounded calmer than Paul had expected as he said, "Sit down Paul."

Paul did as he was told without saying anything and Vince spoke, still calmer than expected, "I know what happened Monday night. I'm going to tell you this once and I do mean only once. Stay away from my daughter outside of your storyline. She's too good for you, she's too good for anyone in that locker room. She's not here to date you people, she's here to work. Am I perfectly clear on that?"

Paul thought, "That's it? Holy shit I got off lightly!" He said, "You're not going to end the storyline and stop us working together?"

Vince said, "I just told you that this is your one warning. This storyline is working well and I know that Stephanie is enjoying doing it so I'm not going to change anything unless I hear about you being with my daughter again or I see you walking in here with something like that," he pointed at Paul's neck, "If that happens I'll bury your ass. Do we understand each other?"

Paul's face had reddened at the mention of his neck and he said, "Yes sir."

Vince ordered, "Get out."

Paul was perfectly happy to get out and he left as quickly as he could.


	22. Chapter 22

As Paul had headed for Vince's office Stephanie had headed for her own office. She nearly made it but as she rounded a corner she saw Joanie walking towards her. She was about to turn around and walk away but Joanie was on her too quickly. As Stephanie attempted to back away she backed into the wall. Joanie seized the opportunity and stood right in front of Stephanie, leaving her with no escape.

Joanie hissed threateningly as her eyes burned into Stephanie's, "You little slut. You think you're going to take my man and my job from me? Well I've got..."

Stephanie interrupted, "Get away from me. I'm going to tell..."

Joanie interrupted in turn, "You're going to tell daddy? Well here's something that you should consider. I like my job and I don't want to lose it... but if I did lose it we'd be able to find out something interesting."

Stephanie asked nervously, "Find out what?"

Joanie said even more threateningly, "How much Paul loves you. I wonder how long he would stick around when I break those legs you like showing off so much and put you in wheelchair?"

Stephanie stammered, "Get away from me."

Joanie stroked Stephanie's hair away from her cheek, "I'll go away princess but if I get any more shit from your dad or if you even look at me the wrong way you're going to get hurt. You got that?"

Stephanie nodded and Joanie stormed away. Stephanie quickly went into her office and sat down. She felt herself shaking, she had never been threatened like that in her life. She thought, "One day bitch. One day I'll get you out of this company and I'll make sure your name is never mentioned again."

* * *

><p>Paul headed for the office after he made his hasty retreat from Vince's office but he also had the misfortune to encounter someone who was angry. He recognised Shane's shout from behind him, "Hey! Come here!"<p>

Paul turned around, "Shane I've already heard this from your dad. I already promised him that I'll stay away from Stephanie so you don't need to..."

Shane was now face to face with Paul, "I'm not as naive as my dad. I know you'll probably keep seeing my sister whether we like it or not. All I'm going to say is that if she comes to me saying that you've hurt her you'll wish that she hadn't. Understood?"

Paul nodded and hurried away. Being with Stephanie definitely wasn't going to be as easy as telling her that he wanted to be. He entered his office as saw Stephanie sitting there and she looked a little pale. He asked, "Steph are you ok?"

She looked at him as he closed the door, "That psycho bitch threatened to break my legs."

Paul sat next to her and put an arm around her, "She's all mouth. She wants you sitting here feeling like this. She loves working here to much to lay a finger on you, trust me."

Stephanie said, "I hope you're sure about that, she scares me."

Paul kissed her, "I said trust me."

"How did you get on with dad?"

Paul laughed, "Better than I expected. He told me that you're too good for me and that I have to stay away from you or I'm done here but there was no screaming. Shane's not happy either."

Stephanie sighed, "What are we going to do?"

"Until the heat dies down we'd better not do anything at work, that's for sure."

She smiled mischievously, "So I need to wait for you to come to my room tonight?"

Paul kissed her again, "That's an offer I can't refuse."

* * *

><p>After that invite the show seemed to drag on for much longer than usual, as did his shower after his match and the drive back to the hotel and eating dinner. All he wanted to was get up to Stephanie's room. He was aching for her.<p>

They had agreed that she would call him when she was free but the call had not came. What was going on? He was so tempted to call her as he sat there with his phone in his hand. He thought, "Just call her, she's probably still eating dinner or something." But then he told himself, "Don't be stupid, if she's with Vince and I call her he's going to crazy and fire me."

He took another shower for no other reason than to pass some time. He had convinced himself that by the time he was done he would have a missed call from Stephanie but it still had not happened. Instead he had missed a call from his mom. He immediately knew what this was going to be. He thought, "Really Jo? You called my mom and told her? She's going to go wild now too."

He decided that it would only get worse if he left it so he called his mom back and spent fifteen minutes listening to a lecture about how he been raised to be better than this and that Jo was a lovely woman who didn't deserve to treated like this and how he shouldn't let some other woman lead him astray and ruin his life. He pretended to agree with everything that she said, it was easier that way.

He finally managed to end the call and sat on the bed not concentrating on the TV that he'd turned on. He was worrying that Stephanie had called while he was on the call with his mom and had gotten his voice mail and thought that his phone was off. Or what if she hadn't called at all? What if she wasn't going to call?

Another ten minutes dragged by before finally his phone rang and he saw that it was Stephanie. He answered immediately, "Hey Steph."

"Hi, sorry I'm so late. Dad was up here making a nuisance of himself. We had dinner and then he came up here making up stupid conversation about work. He's obviously suspicious."

Paul asked, "Has he gone now?"

"Yes. Are you going to come up? Room nine one five."

Paul said eagerly, "Yes, I'll be right there."

He grabbed his room key and left as quickly as he could. He didn't bother to wait for an elevator as he only had two floors to climb. He reached the ninth floor and half expected to find Vince standing there waiting. Fortunately that wasn't the case. He found the correct room and knocked on the door.

Stephanie opened it and said, "Room service?"

Paul asked quietly, "What are you talking about?"

"Ssshhh dad is in the next room."

Paul whispered, "Come down to my room then."

"What?"

"I said come down to my room," he grinned as he added, "With the amount of noise that you make we'd get caught in less than five minutes."

She slapped him playfully, "I don't make... well maybe I do."

Paul grinned, "Come on, my room."

Stephanie seemed to consider it for a second and then she picked up her room key and said, "We're dead if dad finds out about this."

"Then let's not get caught."

They left the room and walked as quickly as they could to the elevators. Paul pressed the button and Stephanie said, "What if dad's in there?"

They both laughed and Paul said, "Quick, down the stairs."

They both ran down the stairs, laughing as they did so. Stephanie said, "We're so going to get caught."

Paul reached his room and unlocked it as he said, "Do you care?"

As he opened the door Stephanie said, "Not right now."

Paul took her is his arms and kissed her. They walked through the door and Paul said, "I hope you find these squalid conditions acceptable?"

Stephanie kicked the door closed and said, "Shut up Paul," as she kissed him again.


	23. Chapter 23

As Stephanie kicked the door shut Paul realised that he did not have the do not disturb sign in place on the other side. He said, "Wait one second," and pulled away from her. He opened the door and hung the sign from the handle on the outside. He closed the door and turned back around to Stephanie and that was when he noticed it for the first time. He wasn't sure how he hadn't noticed it when she opened her door upstairs, maybe he had been too focussed on wanting to kiss her. He asked, "What's that?"

She smiled sweetly, "Do you like it?"

She was wearing a white t-shirt with the initials SMH on the front and underneath the words Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley, her fictional married name. He grinned, "Yes I do."

Stephanie said, "I thought so. They've just launched it, I need to wear it on the shows."

Paul moved closer to her, "I definitely like it."

She surprised him by removing the t-shirt and dropping it on the floor, "How about now?"

Paul's grin got even bigger at the sight of her in only her bra, "Oh yeah I like it even more now, on the floor is a good place for it."

She pulled him to her and kissed him as she wrapped her arms around the back of his neck. They spent a long moment enjoying the taste of each other until Paul dug his fingers into her ass as he picked her up. She yelped in surprise as Paul warned, "No biting this time, or scratches if you can help it."

She purred into his ear, "No promises," and started nibbling on his ear. It felt strange to Paul but in a good way and he felt himself begin to get hard. As she was reaching around to work on his ear it left the side of her neck exposed so Paul began to kiss it. In between nibbles on his ear little moans began to escape her. Paul wasn't sure if they were voluntary or not but the were definitely a turn on as she made them right into his ear.

He walked them over to the bed and placed her down on it. Paul decided that it was time to try and find out where she liked to be touched. He worked around the bottom of her ribs on her left side with soft, gentle kisses and then across her stomach. As he did so he slipped a hand into her shorts and gently touched the insides of the tops of her thighs deliberately staying away from her vagina. He judged by her reactions that the area under her ribs was the place to kiss so he returned to kissing there. He also noted that this was likely to mean that she was vulnerable to tickling in this spot. He would remember that for future use.

He moved his kisses lower and removed her black shorts that really were short and then her underwear so that he could kiss the tender areas at the top of the insides of her legs. Pleased that she was shaved, he ran his tongue around her lips but didn't go any further. It was all about building anticipation.

After a few moments of this she ordered, "Come here." He did as she asked but he avoided the kiss that she attempted and went to work on her neck again and her moans resumed. Again she tried to kiss him but he made sure that he avoided her attempts and kissed the soft skin around the corners of her mouth instead. He purposefully denied her the chance to kiss him for several minutes no matter how hard she tried and he could tell that it was driving her crazy as he had planned.

Still denying Stephanie the chance to do anything he removed her breasts from her bra which she helpfully removed. He worked his way up her breastbone with the same gentle kisses and risked a nibble on the inside of one of her breasts. He worked his way over her breast and then began to lick the nipple. She was moaning louder now as the pleasure and also the frustration at being denied the chance to do anything increased. Paul knew that the payoff would be worth it as he spent a few minutes doing this to both breasts.

Eventually she could stand it no more and she aggressively pushed him off her and she was on him immediately, tearing off his jeans and his underwear almost as fast as he could have done it himself. He had denied her so long and driven her wild with his kisses that she was frantic to get at him and she knew exactly what she was going for, she took his already hard length in her mouth and began working her tongue around it slowly as if it was particularly tasty ice cream cone. The sensation for Paul was incredible, she had such an amazing technique. What was even better was that as she did this she also kept making those moaning sounds and he could actually feel them as vibrations in his penis. It was driving him wild and he couldn't help his own moans of pleasure. He was about to unload but she abruptly stopped and said, "No. I'm not going to let you... until you fuck me."

She slid him into her and he felt that she was also more than ready. Her breasts and her hair were in his face as she began to move slowly with his thrusts and she gave him what she already knew that he wanted, she repeatedly moaned combinations of, "Fuck me," and, "Harder!" Once he even got a, "Fucking harder!" He did as ordered and his thrusts grew harder and harder as her breasts heaved in his face. He was desperately trying to ensure that she was first to come and as soon as he heard her moans get louder and felt her begin to shake in her orgasm he could hold himself no longer and he exploded into her with a loud moan of his own.

After she had rolled off the top of him Stephanie sat on the edge of the bed trying to regain her breath as Paul lay and did the same. She turned to him and smiled, "My god you drive me wild."

He held out an arm to indicate that she could cuddle up next to him which she did as he said, "You're not too bad yourself. What you do with your tongue..."

She nestled her head into his shoulder and chest and as he wrapped his arm around her she said, "You like that huh?"

Paul assured her, "You could say that I like it yes."

She looked up at him and grinned, "I'll remember that."

Paul lay there simply enjoying having her next to him. He closed his eyes and wished that this didn't have to end but he knew that she would have to return to her room. There was certainly no way that she was going to sleep down here and risk Vince figuring out what had happened. The old bastard might be up there now knocking on her door trying to make a nuisance of himself. They might be in deep shit already. Clearly she had had the same thought as she said, "I need to get back to my room Paul."

He held her tightly with the arm that was wrapped around her, "I don't want you to go."

She said sadly, "I don't want to go either but it has to be this way, for now at least."

Stephanie had an idea and she lifted her head and kissed him, "I'll give you something to think about before I go."

"How's that?"

She purred into his ear, "I have my wake up call booked for seven. I'll be in the shower five minutes after that. That means there's a five minute window where someone could knock on my door..."

Paul already felt the anticipation as he laughed, "Seven huh? I'll be there."

Paul watched as she sat up and retrieved her bra and underwear from the floor and put them back on. She giggled, "Was I wearing anything else when I came down here?"

He laughed, "Yeah I think so."

She picked her shorts up next and pulled them on. Paul thought, "My god, those legs."

She walked over to where the t-shirt was on the floor near the door and put that on also. She said, "Are you just going to lie there or come and say goodbye?"

He got up and walked over to her, "I don't want to say goodbye."

She said, "Neither do I. How about see you in the morning?"

He kissed her, "See you in the morning."

They kissed for another long moment but eventually she pulled away and opened the door and walked out. She smiled as she closed it behind her and all that Paul could think about was that he wanted more, "This girl is something else."

Stephanie headed back to her room, relieved to see that her dad seemingly hadn't noticed her absence from her room. She would have loved to have been able to spend the whole night with Paul but for now they would have to get by like this. She entered her room and started the shower running. She thought, "At least the next time I do this Paul will be here." As she undressed she grinned at the memory of the expression that had been on his face the last time that they had been in the shower together as she had washed her hair. She was getting to know what he liked very quickly.


	24. Chapter 24

Paul's first feeling of the day was disappointment. As he checked his phone he saw a text message from Stephanie: _Don't come up here dad is on guard duty already. See you at breakfast xxxx_

"Damn it Vince," Paul mumbled. He took a very boring shower alone and then dressed. He headed down in the elevator and walked into the restaurant where breakfast was being served. As he walked in he saw Vince, Shane and Stephanie sitting together eating. His eyes met Stephanie's and she risked a slight grin. Paul wasn't a breakfast person so he got himself a coffee and feeling brave he headed over to the table that Stephanie was sitting at. He had already seen that there was a spare seat.

He walked over and as he approached he said, "Good morning, do you mind if I sit here?"

Before anyone else could reply Stephanie said, "Of course you can."

Paul sat down next to Vince, opposite Stephanie and said, "How is everyone?"

Vince and Shane mumbled that they were ok and Stephanie said cheerfully, "Great thanks, you?"

Paul tried not to laugh, "Yeah I'm good."

Vince finished a mouthful of his food and said to Paul, "So you're set for this Street Fight with Cactus Jack at the Royal Rumble? We're only just over a week away."

Paul nodded, "Definitely. That guy is crazy but it will make a great match."

Vince said nothing else and Paul wished that he hadn't sat at this table despite Stephanie being there, the atmosphere was too awkward. To make matters worse he caught Stephanie grinning at him over her coffee cup and it nearly made him laugh.

Paul wasn't sure if Shane had picked up on it as he asked, "Do anything interesting last night Paul?"

Paul said, "No, I was beat after my match. I ended up in bed early."

He felt Stephanie kick him under the table. He drained his cup of coffee and said, "Well I'm out of here, I've got to catch a flight. See you guys on Monday."

Vince mumbled, "See you," and Shane nodded. Stephanie beamed, "Bye Paul."

Paul nearly laughed again as he walked away. He thought, "She's so going to get us busted. It's almost as if she's trying to."

* * *

><p>Paul flew home that day which had been a rare thing for him to do. Previously he would either stay in hotels between shows or go back to Joanie's place with her. He thought, "Shit I still have things there. I won't be seeing any of them again."<p>

He looked around his crappy two bed apartment and realised it was time to buy something better. He had the money but there had never been the need before as he hardly used the place. He thought, "If this thing with Steph get's serious I can't bring her here and say 'welcome to my home' can I? Their place probably has fifty bedrooms and swimming pools and all sorts of shit. I need to look for something better than this."

Looking for a house would give him a reason to spend the weekend doing something other than going to see his parents. That was grief that he didn't need. He knew that the lecture he had received from his mom the previous night had been the tip of the iceberg. He would have to face it soon but not this weekend.

He had hoped that Stephanie would call him but she hadn't and calling her was out of the question for obvious reasons.

* * *

><p>Paul had checked into his hotel room on Monday afternoon and gone to get something to eat. He had no plans to eat after the show so he decided to have his usual steak now instead.<p>

He was waiting for it to be delivered when he got a text from Stephanie: _Are you in the hotel yet? xxx_

He sent back: _Yes I'm in the restaurant. Come down if you can x_

He got no response but a few minutes later Stephanie walked in. Paul laughed as he saw that she was wearing her white t-shirt and black shorts again, "Hey look, here's my wife."

Stephanie giggled as she sat opposite him, "I put these on specially for you. I'll have to change back again before we head to the show."

Paul asked, "Can you do that especially for me too?"

"No. Dad booked his room next to mine again damn it. It's like being in prison two nights a week."

Paul said, "You know what that means?"

Stephanie asked, "What?"

"Your dad's room is nowhere near mine."

She giggled again, "Good point. We're going to get busted you do know that, right?"

Paul laughed, "With your poker face we are. You nearly made me laugh twice Friday morning grinning at me."

Stephanie began to speak, "It's not my fault..."

Paul cut her off with a sighed, "Oh shit."

Stephanie's eyes widened, "What, is my dad here?"

"Worse."

Stephanie looked at him blankly, "What?"

Paul said, "Stephanie meet my mom, Patricia."

Stephanie's head snapped around and she saw that there was someone standing behind her. Paul said, "Mom this is Stephanie."

Patricia said, "Pleased to meet you," clearly not meaning it, "can you tear yourself away from my son long enough for me to have a word in private?"

Stephanie stammered, "Uh... yeah. Sure. I'll see you at the arena Paul."

As Stephanie hurried away Patricia watched her with a look of disdain, "That's who you threw Jo away for? Some..."

Paul cut her off, "Don't mom. Don't start insulting Steph, I'm not going to stand for it."

Patricia sat down in the chair that Stephanie had vacated, "Well look at how she dresses for god's sake."

"That was a joke mom, a private joke."

Patricia said disgustedly, "I dread to think."

Paul sighed, "Why are you here mom?"

"You know why. You didn't come home or even call me all weekend and you're not avoiding me that easily. You're going to leave this... Stephanie and you're going to make things right with Jo."

Paul rubbed his forehead in frustration, "It's over between me and Jo and I'm not 'leaving' Stephanie either."

As Paul's steak arrived he settled down for the long haul. This argument would go on for a long time and Paul knew that nothing was going to change at the end of it. No one was going to come between him and Stephanie, not Vince or Shane and certainly not his mom.


	25. Chapter 25

Stephanie walked out of her dad's office to go and get some coffee then find Paul. As she walked down the hallway she thought, "This really is a mess. Paul's mom obviously hates me and Paul is on dad's shit list. Why can't we just be together and be happy? I managed to get him away from that bitch Joanie and still we're not properly together. Sure all of this sneaking around is fun in a way but I just want to be with him."

She approached the catering area and saw that of all people Joanie was making coffee. Stephanie smiled to herself as she decided to try and get her back for her threats the previous week. Stephanie knew that Joanie would be easy to get a reaction from and she had an idea. As she approached Joanie from behind Stephanie recalled a few lines from a Marvin Gaye song that she had listened to earlier at the hotel and she sang them just loudly enough for Joanie to hear her, "I think I'm capsizing, the waves are rising and rising, and when I get that feeling, I want sexual healing..."

Stephanie got a reaction but it wasn't a reaction that she liked. As Stephanie approached Joanie from behind Joanie turned around and practically threw her freshly made cup of coffee all over Stephanie's white t-shirt and she said, "Oh sorry, didn't see you there."

Stephanie screamed as the coffee began to burn her as it completely soaked her t-shirt. She instinctively tore the t-shirt off to stop the burning and she heard someone whistle at the sight of her in her bra. Now the centre of attention in the room Stephanie heard male voices calling out and laughing as her face reddened as Joanie also laughed and then spoke at a volume that only Stephanie could hear, "I warned you."

Feeling tears of rage and embarrassment fill her eyes and trying to cover herself up as much as possible Stephanie threw the coffee soaked t-shirt at Joanie and growled, "I'll get you back for this," and hurried away to change into a clean t-shirt.

After she had put on another of the white t-shirts she headed for her dad's office. She barged in and said, "I've had enough with Joanie dad. She just threw hot coffee all over me and I had to take my t-shirt off in front of a bunch of the guys to stop it from burning me."

Vince asked, "Are you ok?"

"I'm not burned but I'm pissed off! Do something about her!"

Vince sighed, "I thought I told you both to stay away from each other?"

Stephanie raged, "I only went to get coffee dad, I walked up to her and she turned around and threw her coffee at me! I want something done and I don't mean get her in here and warn her again! I want something done!"

Vince raised a hand to quieten his infuriated daughter, "Ok just stop shouting. I warned her and she ignored me so I'll have something done. There are ways to get messages through to people in this place other than shouting at them."

Stephanie demanded, "What are you going to do?"

Vince thought for a few moments and then said, "I'll take her out of the ring for a few weeks. She can manage Chris Jericho instead of wrestling him."

Stephanie tried not to smile or even laugh as she said, "Ok that should teach her. Thank you dad."

Vince said, "Don't go trying to piss her off about this Stephanie, I'm warning you. If I find out that you cause anything to happen between the two of you then you will be the one I punish for it. Clear?"

Stephanie mumbled, "Yes," and walked out of the office. After she had closed the door she smiled and thought, "Enjoy being a manager, bitch. Hopefully you will never get another match before I get you out of this place."

* * *

><p>Paul sat in his fake office waiting for Stephanie. Surely she wasn't avoiding him because of how his mom had spoken to her?<p>

Eventually she walked in and without even a greeting she demanded, "Guess what that bitch Joanie did to me?"

Paul said, "I have no idea."

Stephanie raged, "She threw hot coffee at me and it completely soaked my t-shirt and it would have burned me so I had to take my shirt off and there were guys in there..."

Paul said, "You took your t-shirt in front of some of the guys?"

"What did I just tell you? It was soaked in burning hot coffee that that bitch threw..."

Paul cut her off by asking as he stood up, "Are you ok?"

Stephanie said heatedly, "No, she could have burned me and she embarrassed me. Everyone will be talking about me... again "

Paul hugged her, "Calm down. Did you do anything to piss her off?"

Stephanie lied, "No. I just walked up to get coffee and she turned around and threw hers at me. She didn't even spill it she actually threw all of it at me."

Still holding Stephanie Paul asked, "Have you told Vince?"

"Of course I have, what do you think I'm going to do? Nothing?"

Paul said, "Calm down Steph, I meant that I was going to go and tell him myself. Jo is going to far, she could have actually hurt you."

Stephanie said sadly, "I know. This is the worst day ever, I need someone to make it better."

Paul said, "I'm not sure if this making it better or not but my mom wants to have dinner with us tonight."

Stephanie removed herself from Paul's embrace and said, "How would that possibly be making it better? Your mom obviously hates me."

"She doesn't know you so she can't hate you. Her problem is that she liked Jo and she's pissed that I cheated on her. She's pissed at me not you."

Stephanie said, "I'm not sure Paul."

Paul smiled, "I'll make sure it was worth it afterwards."

Stephanie finally managed a smile, "Will you?"

"Yes I will."

Still smiling Stephanie asked, "What if we get caught?"

Paul shrugged, "Not much we can do about it. I'm not going to go around forever being afraid to spend time with my..." He stopped himself.

Stephanie's smile got bigger, "Your what?"

Paul said nervously, "My girlfriend?"

Stephanie reached up and kissed him, "Don't say it like it's a question."

Paul returned the kiss which went on for as long as they dared to risk it and then he said, "I won't."


	26. Chapter 26

"She said that she was going to come mom," Paul said. Paul and Patricia had been in the restaurant for nearly half an hour but there was no sign of Stephanie. It was getting awkward and Paul thought, "Surely she wouldn't say she was going to come and then no show on me? Maybe Vince stopped her or something?"

Patricia said, "We should order something. She's not going to come."

Paul sighed, "Ok then," and he signalled to a server and they both ordered their meals and Paul also ordered the fish option for Stephanie.

Patricia said, "You ordered her food when she's not even here?"

Paul said, "I know what she likes and she will be here."

Patricia attempted to resume the argument from earlier, "I still don't understand why you would throw away what you had with Jo. You were with her for years and you proposed to her and suddenly this girl Stephanie shows up and you throw it all away. You don't even know her Paul."

Paul was frustrated, "Mom not this again please. We went through this how many times earlier."

Patricia continued, "Well look, she tells you that she will join us for dinner and where is she?"

Paul said, "She's not like that mom, she'll be here."

Patricia asked, "So what is she like then?"

"She's beautiful, she's funny and she's intelligent."

Patricia snorted, "Interesting the order that you put that in."

Paul started to feel irritated, "Come on, me and Steph are serious about making this work."

"You were serious about 'making this work' with Jo until Stephanie showed up."

Paul was about to respond but he saw Stephanie enter the restaurant wearing an expensive looking red dress. He saw Stephanie locate him and as she walked over he thought, "My god she's beautiful, this dinner can't end soon enough." He told Patricia, "Steph's here mom, please don't be rude to her."

Stephanie reached the table and said, "Hi, sorry I'm late. I was uh... avoiding my dad."

Paul noticed the glance that he got from his mom and thought, "Yes mom, Steph's dad is on your side too."

Despite her obvious reservations Paul was pleased to hear Patricia speak as Stephanie sat down next to Paul, "I'm sorry about how I spoke to you earlier Stephanie. I am pleased to meet you."

Paul looked at Stephanie and saw her smile as she said, "No need to apologise, I'm pleased to meet you too. I'd just like to say that I know how Paul and I being together so quickly after Paul split with Joanie must seem but we are serious about making this work."

Patricia said quietly, "From what I heard you were together before Paul split with Jo."

Stephanie's face reddened and Paul said heatedly, "Mom! I asked you not to be rude!"

"It's the truth Paul, unless you're going to sit there and tell me that Jo lied to me about it?"

Paul was surprised to say the least when Stephanie said, "No, it's true. We both treated Jo badly but we had feelings for each other that we couldn't hold back any longer. We realised that we had to be together, right Paul?"

Paul nodded, "Yeah, that's right."

Patricia sighed, "I guess you both do seem happy together."

Stephanie said, "We are. I should order something to eat."

Paul grinned, "No need, I ordered yours for you."

Patricia watched as Stephanie grinned back at her son, "Again? What did you get for me?"

Paul said, "The same as the first time."

The smile remained on Stephanie's face and Patricia said, "Ok I won't give you a hard time any more but Stephanie don't play games with my son, he deserves better than that."

Stephanie said, "I wouldn't do that to Paul, trust me."

Patricia managed to smile at last.

They conversation over dinner was pleasant and Paul was delighted with how well it went. When it was time to leave Paul realised that this was going to be awkward. He couldn't exactly say to Stephanie, "Your room or mine," with his mom next to them so he whispered in Stephanie's ear, "Meet me back in the lobby," then said, "I'll walk you back to your room mom."

Patricia laughed, "You can walk Stephanie back to her room, I'm fine by myself."

Paul said, "No way, you flew all the way down here and you insisted on paying for the dinner so it's the least I can do."

All three of them entered the elevator and when they reached Patricia's floor she said, "Goodnight Stephanie, lovely to meet you."

Stephanie said, "You too, hopefully we'll see each other again soon. Goodnight."

Stephanie giggled to herself as she went back to the lobby in the elevator. She thought, "This sneaking around can be frustrating but it can also be funny."

Paul walked Patricia to her room and kissed her and said, "Thanks for the dinner mom, I love you."

Patricia smiled, "I love you too. I'm glad that you're happy. I don't like the way you went about it but the fact that you're happy is what matters."

Paul smiled back, "Thanks mom."

He headed back to the elevator and smiled once again as he thought, "Sneaking around behind Vince's back is fun... Until we get caught at least."

The elevator arrived in the lobby and Paul found Stephanie waiting for him and she laughed. Paul started laughing too as she said, "This is ridiculous."

Paul said, "It is, let's go find your dad and..."

Stephanie hit him playfully and said, "Your mom may not be hard work but my dad definitely is."

This reminded Paul of something, "You said to my mom 'we both hurt Jo' what was that, you feeling guilty?"

Stephanie spat, "Fuck Jo I was telling your mom what she wanted to hear. I still owe that bitch for that coffee."

Paul sighed, "Really Steph? This is going to continue with the two of you?"

Stephanie asked, "Are we going to argue about that sour faced bitch or are we going to go upstairs?"

Paul pretended to think about it and Stephanie hit him again. Paul said, "Ok! Ok, we'll go upstairs. My room?"

Stephanie said, "No... mine. It will be more fun to do it with dad next door."

Paul laughed as he pushed the button to call for an elevator again, "Fun? You'll get yourself in trouble and me fired."

Stephanie mocked, "Oh 'I'll' do that will I? You won't have anything to do with it I suppose?"

Paul said, "I might do," and took him in his arms and kissed her. They were lost in the moment as the elevator opened and someone walked past until they heard Shane's voice, "Hello Stephanie, Paul."

They jumped apart but Shane was already walking away. Paul said quietly, "I'm fucked," and Stephanie giggled and then moved back closer to him and she purred into his ear, "Let's get upstairs and then I can be fucked too."

Paul smiled and felt himself begin to grow hard in anticipation and said, "I love it when you talk like that."

"I know."


	27. Chapter 27

Stephanie was laughing as she exited the elevator and it made Paul want to laugh too but he wanted to speak to her seriously. He said, "Ssshhh you'll have your dad out here."

Stephanie made a point of being totally silent as she opened the door to her room but as she closed it behind Paul she couldn't help laughing again. Paul turned around to face her and said, "Steph we need to tell your dad about us being together. He's going to catch us, probably in the next five minutes with the way you're going. He'll be mad if we tell him but it will be worse if we don't. That's if Shane doesn't tell him tonight anyway."

Stephanie walked over to him and wrapped her arms behind his neck, "Don't worry about my dad. I'll handle him when I catch him at the right moment. And don't worry about Shane either, if he wasn't ok with this we'd have had a scene downstairs a few minutes ago."

Paul put his arms around her and held her to him as he said, "I want this to be a relationship, a proper relationship. I don't want to spend all of our time together worrying about your dad seeing us or hearing us."

Stephanie assured him, "I'll deal with dad. I just need to get him at the right time."

Paul said, "Will you do it before I see you on Thursday?"

"I'll try."

Paul felt like he was on a roll so he said, "I want you to stay away from Jo too. If you keep going at each other she's going to lose it eventually and you're going to get hurt. Just stay away from her, please?"

Stephanie whined, "Don't complain to me, I'm the one who got burning hot coffee thrown over me for no reason."

Paul asked, "Was it really for no reason?"

Stephanie answered cleverly, "It depends if you call the fact that she hates me a reason I guess."

Paul said, "You're sure that it didn't burn you?"

Stephanie removed her arms from around Paul's neck and then removed her dress as Paul watched and then she said, "See for yourself."

Paul laughed with a huge smile on his face, "Where exactly should I check?"

Stephanie removed her bra, "I think it was mostly there."

Paul felt himself getting hard again, he liked this game, "Where? I don't see anything?"

She moved closer to him and he made sure he looked carefully at her breasts as he held each one in turn in his hand, "Well I can't see any burns but..."

Stephanie giggled, "But what doctor?"

Paul picked her up carried her over to the bed. As he put her down onto it he said, "I think a closer inspection is required."

Stephanie said innocently, "Are you sure?"

Paul began to kiss her breasts softly and in between kisses he said, "Definitely, there could be damage that's hard to make out."

He spent a few minutes working his soft kisses all around both breasts and also licking her nipples and she purred, "What's the verdict?"

Paul said, "I'm pleased to say that your breasts are perfect Miss McMahon."

Stephanie giggled, "Thank you doctor. Come here," she reached up and tried to kiss him but Paul avoided her. She said, "Oh no, you denied me last time. Not this time."

She rolled over so that they ended up face to face on their sides and Paul felt her hand slide inside his pants and she began to unbutton his shirt with her other hand. As she began to rub him over his underwear Stephanie felt how hard he already was and purred, "Oh my."

Paul finished the work of unbuttoning his shirt and threw it aside as he said, "What can I say?"

Stephanie said, "Nothing," and made sure that this was true by kissing him. Paul began to groan in pleasure at the taste of her and the magic she was working with her fingers which were now underneath his underwear. He wished that she was using her mouth instead but this was getting the job done.

Paul unbuttoned his pants to give her greater room to move her hand and then shifted so that he was able to get his own hand into her underwear and he inserted two fingers in her and felt that she was already wet and warm. He began to touch her the same way he remembered doing it in the shower that first time. It had worked then and it worked now, she began to make those moaning sounds that he liked so much as they continued to kiss.

After a few minutes Paul used his other hand to remove hers from his underwear, he didn't want it to go that far. He liked the fact that Stephanie also seemed not to like too much foreplay and it pleased him that he obviously drove her just as crazy as she drove him.

Stephanie lay on her back again to allow Paul on top of her but instead of doing what she expected he shifted himself lower down the bed and then he replaced the two fingers that had been inside of her with his tongue. As he worked his tongue both on the inside and outside of her and even tried sucking on her lips he felt her quiver and between the usual moans he heard, "Oh god Paul."

He continued and again she moaned, "Oh god... Paul."

Paul asked softly almost teasingly, "What?"

Her voice shook along with her body as she almost pleaded, "Just fuck me."

Paul was more than ready but he was enjoying the reaction he was getting from her almost as much as she was and he ignored the request and continued. She tried again, "Fuck me Paul."

Paul ordered, "Say please."

"Please Paul... fuck me... please."

Unable to deny her or himself any more Paul roughly pulled down his pants and underwear and then more gently did the same for Stephanie and finally he entered her and he felt just how ready she really was for him.

As his thrusts began she was already moaning loudly and he knew that he was near to the climax himself. Although she was moaning she wasn't doing what he liked most so he decided to try a bit of it himself, "Talk you dirty bitch. You wanted me to fuck you didn't you?"

She moaned again and then panted, "Yes but harder than this."

He obeyed and she continued, "Don't be gentle, I said fuck me!"

He thrust harder and harder and she was reduced to moaning noises and then as she reached orgasm she let out two very loud sounds that were somewhere between moans and screams. Paul could hold himself back no longer and with a moan of his own he unloaded into her and she pulled his head towards hers and kissed him.

* * *

><p>In the next room Vince McMahon had just turned his TV off and climbed into bed. The rooms in this hotel may have been expensive but the walls were not as thick as you might expect and as Vince closed his eyes he heard two loud moaning sounds from the next room, his daughter's room, his daughter's moaning sounds. Moaning sounds like that would be made for only one reason. He closed his eyes again but this time it was an attempt to control his anger.<p> 


	28. Chapter 28

Stephanie sensed that her dad was in a bad mood. He had hardly spoken over breakfast and the journey to the airport was being made in silence. She had no intention of trying to ask him about whatever it was as she had already thought, "Surely Shane didn't rat us out?"

She couldn't ask him as Shane had already travelled home separately so she occupied her mind with thinking about previous night, "My god Paul drives me crazy. If only I could be with him every night."

Half an hour later after their jet had taken off and they had some privacy Vince said out of nowhere, "You had Paul in your room last night didn't you?"

Stephanie instantly panicked and lied, "No."

Vince said angrily, "Well someone was in there, I heard you. If it wasn't Paul then who was it?"

Stephanie thought, "Oh god he's going to go insane. Why didn't we just tell him before? And why did I insist on going to my room instead of Paul's? God damn it!"

Vince raged, "Answer me! Who was in there?"

Stephanie tried to use her tone to calm him, not that she expected it to work, "Ok dad please calm down. Yes me and Paul were in my room, we're together..."

Vince's cheeks reddened, "The hell you are! What did I tell you before? I told you before you came on the road, you do not date wrestlers! That was the one rule I insisted on and we both agreed to it."

Stephanie pouted, "Well I don't agree to it now."

"I'm not discussing it Stephanie. You're too good for those guys and even if you weren't do you have any idea how many relationships I've seen between people who work for me? They never work out, ever. You're going to get hurt and I'm not letting it happen."

Stephanie said angrily, "It's not your decision."

Vince raged, "Do you have any idea how it made me feel last night, hearing my only daughter..."

Stephanie said unwisely, "The opposite of how it made me feel I guess."

"Stephanie! That's it, this ends now. I warned you and I warned him but you both ignored me. I can't take Paul out of the title picture as he's one of the best guys we have... but I can take you off TV and send you back to the office full time."

Stephanie raged too now, "Like hell you can! I'm not having you control my life like that!"

"Whether you see it or not I'm doing what's best for you. This thing with Paul ends now or I end it for you."

Stephanie yelled, "You're not going to give up are you? You're not going to let me be with Paul while we work together?"

Vince insisted, "No I'm not."

Stephanie yelled, "Then I quit!" She stormed away from Vince and sat as far away from him as she could.

They both sat and raged silently for the next few minutes until Vince cracked and got up and walked over to her, "Stephanie..."

Stephanie refused to look at him, instead looking out of the window at nothing and she hissed, "Go away. I hate you."

"You sound like a teenager Stephanie. Can't we talk like adults?"

"No. You're not controlling my life. Stick your job and your company up your ass, I quit. I'll date who I want and there's nothing you can do about it."

Vince said, "You can't just quit."

"I have just quit. Get away from me, don't talk to me."

* * *

><p>Unaware of any of this Paul drove his mom to the airport. They had spent the morning together shopping in the city but now it was time for her to head home. As he drove Patricia asked, "Are you sure you don't want to come home for a couple of days?"<p>

Paul said, "No thanks mom I'm staying on the road. I was thinking though..." his voice trailed off.

Patricia encouraged, "Thinking what?"

"Stephanie and I plan to tell her dad about us being together and when that's done I thought maybe she could visit us at home?"

Patricia said, "That would be nice, we should do that. You think Stephanie's dad will give you both a hard time?"

Paul laughed but it was humorless, "I don't think, I know. He's my boss too so I dread to think what's going to happen to be honest."

Patricia said, "Don't worry, everything will be ok."

* * *

><p>"Are you seriously going to ignore me for the entire journey home?" Vince asked as their car drove towards home.<p>

Stephanie ignored him and Vince began to lose his temper again, "You're not going to act like this in my house Stephanie. Grow up before..."

Stephanie hissed, "You want to me to quit your house too? Fine, I'll move out. In fact to hell with this as soon as we get out of this car I'm getting a cab back to the airport and I'm calling Paul and I'm staying with him."

Vince said, "Don't be like this Stephanie. You're really this desperate to be his throwaway girlfriend?"

Stephanie spat, "I'd rather be his girlfriend than your daughter."

Vince was hurt by that, "Stephanie..."

"Paul wants to be with me and you just want to control me. I'm done with it. I quit your company and I quit your house and I quit your bullshit rules."

Vince realised that she was serious, "Let's get home and we can talk about it."

Stephanie yelled to the driver, "Hey! Stop the car! I'm getting out."

The car pulled over and Vince said, "You're not getting..."

"You're not controlling me dad. Go to hell." As she got out she ordered the driver, "Get my case."

She slammed the door shut and after the driver retrieved her case she stormed away, wheeling it behind her, looking for a cab to get back to the airport.

Vince knew that he wasn't going to be able to talk her back into the car so he left her to it and decided to call her that night when she had had a chance to calm down. He thought, "She's really serious about Paul, that much is obvious. What a fucking mess."

* * *

><p>Paul had just said goodbye to Patricia when his phone rang. He saw that it was Stephanie and he answered, "Hey."<p>

"Where are you?"

Paul noticed that she sounded upset, "I just dropped my mom at the airport..."

"Stay there, I'm coming back."

Paul was confused, "Steph what's going on? What's wrong?"

He could tell that she had started to cry, "I'll tell you when I get there. Just wait for me please."

"Ok, I'll wait."

She ended the call and Paul thought, "What on Earth is going on now?"


	29. Chapter 29

Paul sat and waited for twenty minutes before he realised that Stephanie had not told him where she was flying in from which meant that he did not know when she would arrive. He thought, "Assuming that they flew home that means they flew to New York I guess... Ok I'll go check on arrivals."

He walked over to a position where he could see the arrivals board and thought, "Four hours? I'm not sitting in here for four hours. I'm going to go get something to eat." As he walked out of the airport he thought, "She told Vince and he's gone wild, that's obviously what this is. But why is she flying back here? Is she coming to end it with me? I bet that's what it is, we're finished. God damn it please don't let that be it."

* * *

><p>Paul walked back into the airport three and a half hours later. He had spent the whole time worrying that Stephanie was going to end their very brief relationship. He stood around in the arrivals area until eventually Stephanie walked out, wheeling her case behind her. She was wearing a short skirt and a leather jacket and Paul could not help thinking how stunning she was as he walked towards her as she approached, as he got closer he saw that she looked like she was about to cry again.<p>

As they got close enough to each other he asked, "Steph what's happened?"

She dropped the handle of her case and hugged him and began to cry as she said, "I quit."

Paul hugged her back and said gently, "Hey, stop crying. What do you mean you quit?"

She didn't let go of him and she hurriedly said, "My dad knew that you were in my room, he said that he heard us but I think that Shane must have ratted us out. Dad came with all his crap about how he wasn't going to let us be together as long as we worked together so I quit."

Paul pulled back from her and asked incredulously, "You quit the WWF?"

Stephanie wiped her eyes, "Yes and I told him I'm moving out. I told him that I quit his company and his house and his bullshit rules trying to control my life. I told him to go to hell and I came back here to be with you."

Paul tried to keep up with this, "Steph this is crazy, what are you doing?"

"Not standing for his crap. I want to be with you Paul and I will be whether he likes it or not."

Paul hugged her again and said, "You can't do this. You can't throw your whole life away for me like this, this is crazy."

Stephanie rested her head on his shoulder and said quietly, "I can because I love you."

Paul hugged her tighter with one arm and used his other hand to lift her chin so that he could look into her eyes. He kissed her and said, "I love you too."

He saw her eyes fill with tears again but she didn't say anything so Paul said, "You still can't quit your family's company for me."

Stephanie insisted, "I don't care. If I have to choose between being with you or having my life ruled by my dad then I choose you and he can go to hell and take his company with him."

Paul said, "Let's go back to the hotel and we can talk about it."

* * *

><p>Vince had tried to call Stephanie's cell phone but it was off and there was no answer from Paul either. Vince had received the riot act from Linda about how he had handled the situation and then when he had called Shane and told him he had gotten the same from him too.<p>

What was he supposed to do now? He didn't know where Paul, and now Stephanie, were staying that night. He had called the hotel that they had been in the previous night but Paul had checked out. All he could do was wait for a call or hope that Stephanie showed up on Thursday with Paul for Smackdown. He thought, "What if she really has quit and moved out? What if she's serious? What have I done?"

* * *

><p>"You've got to at least call home Steph, I keep telling you that. You've got to let your family know that you're safe," Paul said as they sat in the bar in the hotel that he had checked them into.<p>

Stephanie downed another shot of tequila, "I'm not speaking to him. If you're so keen on it then you call him."

Paul slid her empty glass away from her, "You've had enough of those too. Will you just listen? Call Shane if you won't call your dad."

Stephanie snorted, "He's just as bad, he ratted on me."

Paul asked, "Do you actually know that or are you assuming?"

She said drunkenly, "I'm assuming. I'm also assuming that I need more tequila."

Paul tried persuasion as he drank some of his beer, "I'll buy you more tequila when you call someone."

Stephanie said stubbornly, "No."

Paul finally began to lose patience, "You're impossible, you know that?"

Stephanie glared at him, "Excuse me?"

Paul calmed himself and then said, "Just stop being so stubborn, please. All you have to do is call home and let them know that you're ok."

Stephanie rambled drunkenly, "I can't. I know you're right about it but I can't do it. I can't talk to my dad today, I just can't. Would you do it for me?"

Paul said, "Steph it's fairly obvious that your dad won't want to talk to me."

"Then forget it. Order another beer and get me more tequila."

Paul sighed, "Fine, I'll call him for you."

"Thank you Paul. I'll order more drinks. More drinks will be good."

Paul said, "I'm not sure about good but I might need one in a few minutes."

Paul stood to walk out of the bar to make the call but Stephanie surprised Paul by standing also and hugging him, "I'm not letting dad force us apart, no matter what happens. I love you."

Paul hugged her tightly in return, "I love you too. So we've decided... no matter what happens we stay together?"

"Yes. All I want is to be with you."

They held each other for a long moment and when they separated Paul kissed Stephanie and said, "I'll be right back."

Then he walked out of the bar into the lobby and reluctantly took out his phone and cleared the message about missed calls from Vince from the screen. He thought, "Ok so we told each other that we love each other and that we are committed to each other but she's quit her job and I'm probably about to get fired." Paul took a deep breath and called Vince's number.


	30. Chapter 30

"Paul, is Stephanie with you?" Paul had expected Vince to sound angry but he sounded closer to concerned than angry.

Paul answered calmly, hoping that this conversation could be concluded without an argument, "Yes she's here and she's fine. She's had a few drinks but she's fine."

"She told me that she's moving out of our house and quitting the company."

Paul said, "I know Vince, she told me that too. She's refusing to even talk to you guys but give me some time and I'll get her to come with me to Smackdown on Thursday, ok?"

Vince sounded irritated, "You make it sound like you're doing me a favour."

Paul tried to diffuse him, "That's not how I meant it. I don't want Steph to leave home or the company but we have decided that we're staying together..."

Vince cut him off with an order not a request, "Just get her to Smackdown on Thursday. I told you not to go near her and now look at the mess we're in."

The call was ended and Paul thought, "Of course this is all my fault. You can't just deal with the fact that I make your daughter happy can you Vince? Stubborn old bastard."

Paul walked back into the bar and found Stephanie working on another drink. He sat next to her and said, "You're going to be dying tomorrow, you know that?"

Stephanie stared into her drink, "I don't care, I need this. What did he say?"

Paul decided to be economical with the truth, "He asked if you were ok and he made it clear that I'm on his shit list, that's about it. I told him that you wouldn't talk to him tonight."

Stephanie said firmly, "No I won't."

Paul said, "You should come with me to Smackdown Thursday night and speak to him then."

Stephanie drank some more and then surprisingly she replied, slurring as she did so, "I will and if he doesn't change his attitude I will walk out. I know he doesn't believe that I will but I will Paul. I'm not going to have him controlling my life."

Paul took her drink away from her and finished it himself, even though he didn't like tequila. He said, "You're drunk Steph and you don't mean that, come on let's go upstairs."

She slurred, "I'm fine and I do mean it."

Paul stood and Stephanie followed his example, picking up her leather jacket as she did so and immediately she realised that Paul was right, she'd had way too much to drink. She nearly fell sideways as she tried to walk but Paul caught her and said, "Come on, I've got you," as he silently cursed himself for letting her drink so much. He'd had a few himself but he was nothing like as drunk as she was.

He walked with her to the elevators and she began giggling, "I'm drunk and my life is a mess... but I'm happy."

As they waited for an elevator to arrive Paul asked, "Your life is a mess but you're happy? What are you rambling about?"

The doors directly in front of them opened and they entered the elevator as Stephanie said, "I'm with you."

Paul kissed her as the elevator rose and said, "Remember how happy that makes you tomorrow when you're in the bathroom throwing up."

Stephanie giggled, "I don't get sick from drinking."

Paul laughed as the doors slid open on their floor, "Right, we'll see about that."

They made their way to their room and as Paul opened the door he said with a grin, "Your palace awaits my queen."

Stephanie laughed as she walked into the room, "Really? You just called me queen?"

Paul followed her in and laughed as he closed the door. Then he said jokingly, "It was a decision between queen and snow bunny."

Stephanie turned around to face him but lost her balance and ended up dropping her jacket on the floor and found herself sitting on the bed laughing, "Snow bunny? I like that."

Paul walked towards her, still laughing and said, "You must be drunk. I'm going to keep calling you that now though."

Stephanie had flopped onto the bed and Paul said, "Come on get undressed and we can get into bed."

Stephanie mumbled, "I'm ok here."

Paul pulled her up to a sitting position gently by one of her arms and helped her to remove her top and then tossed it aside. At the sight of her in only her bra he was tempted to try for some sex but he knew that wasn't going to happen with her in this state.

He removed her skirt and tossed it on the floor next to her top and her jacket and then lifted her to remove the covers from under her. She mumbled, clearly close to sleep, "I love you Paul."

Paul put her back down on the bed and placed the covers over her. He then removed his own jacket and then the rest of his clothes and got into bed next to his now already sleeping girlfriend. He lay on his side and wrapped an arm around her and said, "I love you too."

* * *

><p>As Vince had ended the call with Paul he had muttered to himself, "Son of a bitch."<p>

Linda demanded from the other end of the couch, "Is Steph ok?"

Vince said angrily, "Yes and Paul is going to get her to come to Smackdown so that we can talk. He makes out that he's doing me a favour! He deliberately ignores me and continues to see my daughter behind my back and she ends up moving out of my house and I'm supposed to be grateful to him?"

Linda said, "Calm down Vince. If you start raging like this on Thursday you're going to make things worse. Maybe we should just leave her and Paul alone?"

Vince raged, "No way. I'm not sitting around waiting for my daughter to get hurt."

Linda mumbled, "You're not doing a bad job of it yourself."

Vince stormed out of the room. The thought that his daughter was going to be spending tonight in some crappy hotel room with Paul Levesque made his blood boil.


	31. Chapter 31

Wednesday had not been eventful as predictably Stephanie spent most of it nursing a hang over. Now it was Thursday and Paul had driven them to the arena where Smackdown was being held. As they walked along a hallway looking for Vince's office Paul said to Stephanie, "Please do your best to make peace with your dad. I know you don't want to be living in hotel rooms with me and..."

Stephanie interrupted, "I don't care where I live as long as it's with you. You think I'm too much of a princess to live out of hotels?"

Paul carefully avoided, "Just make things right for both of our sakes. Here's his office now."

Stephanie insisted, "I'm not backing down. He accepts that we are together or I walk out it's that simple."

Paul kissed her, "You and your dad are too alike. I'm going to find my locker room, good luck."

Stephanie said, "Thank you. I love you."

As she knocked on Vince's door and entered Paul made himself scarce. He spent several minutes looking around but he could not find his locker room. As he continued searching he saw Shane walking towards him. Shane's greeting was friendly enough, "Paul."

Paul matched his tone, "Hey Shane. Listen about Steph leaving home... I didn't know or want her to do that ok?"

Shane shook his head slightly, "That's my sister. When she wants her own way she can be a real nightmare until she gets it. I'm sure you'll find out."

Paul asked, "You don't have a problem with us being together?"

"I don't interfere in other people's lives Paul, I'll leave that to my dad. I told you before, as long as Steph doesn't come to me saying that you've hurt her we won't have a problem."

Paul asked again, "So you didn't tell Vince that you saw us kissing?"

"Of course I didn't."

Paul sighed, "Steph thinks that you did."

Shane sighed, "Great. Well you tell her that I didn't ok?"

"Sure. Uh... Shane? Steph's in there with Vince now, what's going to happen?"

Shane laughed once, "You're talking about the two most stubborn people that I know and the two with the shortest tempers. You tell me?"

Paul let out a deep breath, "Oh god."

Shane slapped Paul on the shoulder, "Welcome to the McMahon family, it's a laugh a minute. I've got to get on, I'll see you around."

Paul mumbled, "Yeah," then as Shane walked away he asked more loudly, "Hey Shane, where's my locker room?"

Shane stopped and Paul saw him sigh as he turned around, "Dad made sure that you don't have one. You're back in with the rest of the guys."

Paul shook his head as he walked away and mumbled, "Fucking seriously?"

* * *

><p>Stephanie walked into her dad's office and saw him talking with Mick Foley. As he saw her Vince said to Mick, "Can we carry this on later?"<p>

Mick said, "Sure," then as he walked towards the door, "Hi Steph."

Stephanie smiled at Mick, he was one of the few people who was nice to her around this place, "Hey Mick."

Mick closed the door behind him and Vince said kindly, "Steph are you ok?"

"Of course I'm ok. I've been with Paul why wouldn't I be ok?"

Vince said, "Sit down and we can talk."

Stephanie walked over and sat on the couch which was up against one wall. Vince walked over and sat next to her and said, "We need to sort this out and you need to come home."

Stephanie insisted, "I'm not coming home unless you accept that Paul and I are together."

Vince had been telling himself all day to remain calm when he spoke to Stephanie but even so he bristled at that, "Don't try to blackmail me Stephanie. I've already said..."

Stephanie reacted to his tone and stood up, "I've already said that I'm not letting you control me. I'm with Paul and that's not going to change. I love him."

Those final three words started Vince's anger rising and he stood too, "You do not love him. You've had him in your room and you've... been with him. That does not mean that you love him."

Stephanie raised her voice, "Seriously? You're going to try to tell me what I feel now too?"

Vince said angrily, "Don't raise your voice at me like that young lady."

Stephanie's voice remained raised, "Stop telling me what to do! I'm not a kid any more. I can speak how I want, I can live where I want and I can fuck who I want!"

Vince's eyes widened, "Stephanie!" He tried to calm himself before he said, "This is what I mean, you're out of control."

Stephanie was so angry that she was unable to stand still. As she paced around the office she raged, "I'm out of control? This is all my fault? I'm with a man who I love, a man who loves me! You should be happy for me but no... you're just a mean, stubborn, selfish old bastard!"

Vince screamed, "I'm your father and you will not speak to me like that! Get out!"

Stephanie's eyes filled with tears of rage as she yelled back, "I'll get out and I'm never coming back! I quit! I hate you!"

Vince realised that he had lost his cool when he really should not have and he walked towards her and said, "Wait," but Stephanie was already out of the door and she slammed it as hard as she could behind her.

Vince considered chasing after her but another shouting match in front of his employees was not going to help anything. He tried to calm himself but after a few seconds he could not manage it and he yelled, "Shit!" as he swiped everything from the top of his desk onto the floor.

Stephanie stormed along the hallway with her blood boiling and she reached meltdown as she saw Joanie standing ahead of her talking into her cell phone. What was it with this bitch? She always managed to appear at the worst time.

Ignoring the fact the Joanie was already speaking Stephanie approached her and said nastily, "You can be happy now you ugly bitch, I just quit."

Joanie looked at Stephanie and ended her call without warning whoever was on the other end of it. She smiled, "You just quit? That's great!"

Stephanie said spitefully, "I'll have to spend all of my time with 'your' man instead."

Joanie's eyes narrowed slightly in anger, "You're welcome to each other. I have no idea what he sees in you, everything about you makes me sick you little slut. You're such..."

Stephanie surprised herself nearly as much as Joanie by slapping Joanie as hard as she could on her left cheek. The sound echoed along the empty hallway and the impact had turned Joanie's head to the side.

Stephanie was just thinking that this might have been a stupid thing to do when Joanie's head snapped back around to face her and at the same time Stephanie felt herself lifting from her feet and slamming against the wall behind her. Joanie's forearm was rammed into her throat pinning her to the wall and keeping her off her feet. It also left her unable to breathe. Her eyes widened and she tried to pull Joanie's arm away, not that that was going to happen, Joanie was much too strong.

Joanie's nose touched Stephanie's and her eyes were alive with hatred as she growled, "If we're going to start hitting each other one of us is going to get seriously hurt. I don't think it's going to be me, do you?"

Stephanie was panicking, she still couldn't breathe and there was no one else around. She tried to gasp out a plea for Joanie to let her go but she couldn't. Her legs kicked at Joanie and her hands scratched at her arm as she pathetically gasped for air, none of which had any effect. Joanie released her a long moment later and Stephanie crumpled to the floor gasping in air as quickly as possible. Joanie growled, "Touch me again Stephanie you pathetic little slut, please," and stormed away.

Stephanie regained her feet and staggered away still gasping for breath and now on the brink of crying too. She needed to find Paul and tell him what had happened and then she needed to get out of this place and never come back. She hated everything about this place and everyone in it.


	32. Chapter 32

As if things were not bad enough already now Stephanie could not find Paul's locker room. She had been searching for five minutes throughout this god damned maze of hallways and there was no sign of it anywhere. All she wanted to do was find Paul and then get out of the building away from all of these horrible people. She had somehow managed not to cry after being assaulted by Joanie, it was tempting to call the cops and report her for it but she would only deny it and then nothing would be done about it. Stephanie figured that everyone would take Joanie's side anyway, no one would stand up for her apart from Paul. Everyone else simply regarded her as a slut, a princess and a bitch which was completely unfair. What had she ever done to deserve any of it?

She gave up on finding Paul's locker room herself which meant that there was no other choice but to ask the next one of these hateful wrestlers that she bumped into. Fortunately it was someone who at least liked Paul if not herself, Billy Gunn was walking along the hallway towards her. Due to her considerable frustration and anger Stephanie completely forgot her manners as they got close to each other, "Where's Paul's locker room?"

Billy looked down at her at her and his expression was not friendly, "He doesn't have one any more. Something about some silver spoon princess he's sleeping with?"

Stephanie felt her anger about to explode again at what she viewed as an unnecessary insult. She stood with one hand on her hip and tried to remain calm and almost succeeded. This wasn't how it appeared to Billy however as she said, "Where is he? Just tell me."

Billy wondered who this little bitch thought she was and what Paul saw in her. Sure she looked great but aside from that there did not seem to be much to like. He said coldly, "You know you could use some manners. He's in with the rest of the guys."

Stephanie hurried away after mumbling, "Thank you." She already knew where the main locker room was. She turned to the left at the next opportunity and almost ran as she now knew the location of the man that she now considered to be the one person in her life who truly cared about her.

She reached the black locker room door and without thinking about what she was doing she crashed through it. She saw that there were several wrestlers in there but she could not see Paul. She heard Bob Holly say from the opposite end of the room, "Come to get your tits out again?"

As her face reddened in embarrassment finally Stephanie saw Paul. He had been hidden from sight as he was sitting behind where Bob was standing taping up his wrists. He craned his neck around Bob to see who he was addressing and when he saw Stephanie he heard her say almost desperately, "Paul?"

Paul leapt up from the steel chair he was sitting on and shoved Bob hard into some lockers and said menacingly, "Shut the fuck up dick head."

D'lo Brown and The Godfather got in between the two men to prevent things going further but Paul was already heading over to Stephanie. He put an arm around her as he led her out of the locker room and slammed the door behind him with his other hand, "What's happened Steph? You look... I don't know... it didn't go well though, right?"

Stephanie tried not to cry again as Paul led her a few feet away from the locker room door, "Dad is a bastard. All he wants to do is control me so I've quit. And then..."

Paul gently turned Stephanie to face him and looked into her eyes, "Wait, you quit for real? You've actually quit?"

Stephanie replied, "I just said that. Yes I quit and then..."

Paul sighed inwardly before he cut in again. Why couldn't she just pull her head in and apologise to her dad or whatever it took? She didn't even have to mean it for god's sake. As he spoke he realised that he sounded exactly how he felt, angry, "God damn it. Could you not just make some effort? How many times have I asked you these past two days and how many times tonight to fix things with your dad?"

Stephanie's night had gone badly enough already without Paul getting pissed of with her too. What the hell was wrong with everyone? It began to get too much for her and she lost control again and yelled, "Fine! You win! Dad wins! Everyone wins apart from me! I'll go tell him that we're over shall I?! Is that what you want?!"

Paul raised a hand defensively. He hadn't expected to hear that, "Stop shouting! You need to calm down," but Stephanie did not calm down, "I'm fighting for this relationship! I'm fighting for you and you don't give a fuck!"

The accusation made Paul even angrier, "Don't stand there and tell me that I don't give a fuck! I'm putting my career on the line by being with you, you know that as well as I do!"

The argument was interrupted by a familiar woman's voice from a few feet along the hallway in the opposite direction from the locker room. There was obvious amusement in the tone, "Want me to call Jerry Springer?" Stephanie's anger immediately shifted target to the new presence in the hallway and she raged at Paul and pointed, "That fucking bitch tried to strangle me!"

Paul found this hard to believe but he narrowed his eyes at the new arrival, "Jo?"

Joanie smiled sarcastically, "Look at me and look at her. You think that scrawny bitch would be standing there now screaming in that stupid high pitched voice if I had wanted to strangle her?" Stephanie yelled, "Fuck you! At least I don't look like a man!"

Joanie's reaction to the insult was to begin to walk towards Stephanie but Paul had already anticipated it and he stepped in between them, "Back off Jo, I'm not going to let you hit her." Joanie said with a smirk, "I didn't come to hit the pathetic bitch, I came to return this," she held out Stephanie's white t-shirt past Paul's side towards Stephanie and added sarcastically to her, "I washed it for you, I think you must have spilt coffee on it."

Before Paul could respond the memory of the coffee throwing incident came back to Stephanie and it added to everything else that had happened that night and pushed her past the point of meltdown. This time she did not slap Joanie, she did something she had never done to anyone before in her life. She moved quickly and before Paul could react she came around the side of him and punched Joanie as hard as she could aiming only to make contact with her face. Stephanie's punch was hardly powerful but by pure chance it made clean contact with Joanie's nose and there was a cracking sound as it impacted. It does not take much force to damage a persons nose and Stephanie's punch broke it.

Joanie's head snapped to the side with the impact as with the earlier slap and Paul yelled in genuine shock, "Steph! What the fuck are you doing?!" He had turned back around to face Stephanie intending to drag her away before things got worse but he was already too late for that. Joanie had recovered from the shock of the punch and had felt and tasted the blood flowing from her nose. With a scream she launched herself at Stephanie.

Stephanie had been focussed partly on the fact that her hand hurt and also wondering why she had done what she had just done until she heard the scream and fortunately she reacted as quickly as Paul did. Stephanie ran and Paul grabbed Joanie around the waist as she lunged past him. Both of these actions certainly saved Stephanie from a visit to the hospital, probably a long one.

Paul kept his tight grip on Joanie and yelled at his girlfriend who had retreated all the way to the end of the hallway. He saw that Stephanie was holding her right hand with her left and that she now had a smile on her face, apparently satisfied that she had finally emerged from an encounter with Joanie with the upper hand, "Just get back to the hotel will you for fuck's sake!" Joanie was struggling in his arms and yelling, "Let me at her you bastard! Get off me!"

Stephanie had vanished, apparently taking Paul's advice. The next thing to make things worse was a round of applause from the guys who had been in the locker room. They had obviously emerged to see what all the shouting was about and had been enjoying it very much indeed. Someone shouted, "Fucking brilliant!" Someone else asked, "Who's got the popcorn?"

Paul was unable to get any angrier and his face was bright red as screamed at them as loudly as he could, "Fuck off! Now!' Such was the venom in his voice that they actually did as ordered and went back into the locker room without a further word being spoken by anyone. Paul still had hold of Joanie and she was still raging to be set free from his grasp and to be able to get her hands on Stephanie.

Paul thought that his head may explode so he took a deep breath and then released her and said as calmly as he could manage, "She's gone Jo. Go see the doctor and get that looked at." Joanie turned around and looked Paul in the eye and he could see that she was still way beyond livid. She stood there with blood still flowing down over her mouth and chin which she attempted to wipe away as she said, "You tell her that if she ever comes within striking distance of me again I'll do much worse than this to her regardless of it costing me my job. You got that?"

Paul could see that she meant it so he just said, "Go get that looked at, it's broken." Joanie shoved past him, "I fucking know it is." Paul was simply relieved that she was leaving and he was even more relieved that Stephanie had left too. What the hell had gotten into her tonight? He stood in the hallway for a full thirty seconds with his eyes closed attempting to calm down. When this was at least partially accomplished he opened his eyes and turned around and immediately saw Pat Patterson walking towards him, "Vince wants to see you."

Paul looked up to the heavens, "For fuck's sake Stephanie!"

* * *

><p>Later that night Paul approached his hotel room door and considered all of the possibilities for when he opened the door. Stephanie could be in there asleep, that would be the one he preferred most. She could be in there having already been murdered by Jo, that was the worst be still very possible situation he could think of.<p>

She could be in there drunk or she could not be in there at all. She could have left him or she could have been arrested for assaulting Joanie. There was only one way to find out, Paul unlocked and opened the door quietly in case Stephanie was asleep.

It seemed unlikely as the first thing he noticed that the radio was on and turned up loud. Paul walked into the room, still unable to see Stephanie as the bed was out of sight around the corner. He could hear her singing along to the end of the Phil Collins song that was playing, slurring and out of tune, clearly drunk, "It's just another day for you... you and me in paradise." A few seconds later she continued, "It's just another day, for you and me, in paradise."

Paul could not help the smile that came to his face as he shook his head. This girl may be crazy and very hard work, she may have broken his ex girlfriend's nose and nearly been killed for it, she may have caused him to end up in Vince's office getting the good news for almost fifteen minutes but even considering all of that there was no doubt about it. He loved her and none of those things would even come close to making him think otherwise.


	33. Chapter 33

Three weeks had gone by and Paul thought that it would be hard for things to get worse, at least as far as work was concerned. It was being made obvious that he was considered to be responsible for Stephanie's absence. Considered by Vince at least. He still had not been given his own locker room back and Vince flat out refused to speak to him. The old bastard had even walked right by him in the hallway and blanked him more than once. It was ridiculous, it was as though Vince genuinely believed that this was anyone else's fault other than his own. Paul expected to get the news at any time that he was going to have to drop the belt to someone, probably The Rock. He certainly imagined that his dream of a Wrestlemania main event had gone west long ago.

Paul was determined not to let Vince's mind games get to him, it was his own fault that his daughter had quit the company. She had made it quite clear that she would do it but Vince had been too stubborn to listen. Paul was sure that all Vince needed to do was call Stephanie and apologise and ask her to return to work and she would do. What was wrong with the guy? How could three weeks go by without Vince realising that their relationship was going to continue no matter what he did?

At least things were still going great with Stephanie. She had been out of control at the time when she had quit but since she had been away from the WWF she had calmed down and although they had been living out of hotel rooms the whole time they were incredibly happy. Paul laughed as he remembered Stephanie punching Joanie in the face and breaking her nose. If Stephanie ever did return he imagined that Jo might think twice before attempting to get a reaction. Or maybe things would blow up and someone would get hurt again, on second thoughts it wasn't so funny.

Today was Friday and Paul had been looking forward to it all week. There would be no hotel room to sleep in tonight, they were going to fly home and stay at his parents place. Stephanie had already had dinner with his mom one night but she had never met his dad and Paul was hyped and proud to properly introduce his girlfriend to his parents.

The problem was that suddenly Stephanie did not seem as pleased about it as he was. Up until today she had been fine but today something was clearly wrong. Paul wondered if it was a recurrence of the illness she'd had at the start of the week. They had just left for the airport and Stephanie was sitting silently in the passenger seat of his car. Paul asked, "What's wrong? You've hardly said anything all day."

Stephanie's short reply was, "I'm fine," which convinced Paul of the opposite. He was determined not to let today get ruined by whatever was troubling her, clearly it had to be talked about whatever it was. He tried persuasion, "Come on Steph don't be like this. Don't tell me that you don't want to go to my parents place? I thought you were looking forward to it."

Her neutral, almost blank expression remained unchanged, "I am looking forward to it and I'm fine. Please don't go on to me."

Paul glanced at her again, "You're not sick again are you? We can put this off until next week if you are."

"I said I'm fine."

Paul left it at that until they reached the airport. They checked in and had a small amount of time to kill before boarding their flight. They had been sitting in the waiting area for a few minutes when he heard Stephanie let out a deep breath and then get up. He looked at her and she headed for one of the shops. Paul got up to join her but she said, "Stay there, I'll be right back."

Paul sat back down again wondering what on Earth had gotten into Stephanie. Something very strange was going on that was for sure. He realised that he was nervously playing with his watch, he was starting not to look forward to getting to his parent's place at all now as he did not want them to think that this was what his girlfriend was really like. What was it with women sometimes? Why wouldn't she just tell him what was wrong.

A few minutes later she returned with two bottles of water and some magazines. She gave him a smile but he thought that it looked forced rather than stunning as they usually did as she handed him one of the bottles of water. He decided to make yet another attempt, "Thanks. Steph I can't help you if you don't tell me..."

She cut him off, "Look I'm just nervous ok? The fact that you keep asking me is making it worse so could we just get there please?"

Paul closed his eyes for a second. He was no expert on reading people but he did not have to be to figure out that the reason she had just given was bullshit.

* * *

><p>After their flight had landed and they had collected their bags Paul made yet another attempt to get Stephanie to open up before they met his dad who going to drive them home, "Is it your dad? Has he called you?"<p>

He watched as Stephanie's eyes closed and her mouth twitched in obvious irritation before the reply came, "For the last time I just want to get to your parent's place and I want you to stop asking me what's wrong. I'm ok, just stop it!"

As they headed through to the arrivals area Paul shook his head slightly as he was thinking that if Stephanie started going into what he referred to as princess mode today and made herself look bad in front of his parents he was going to be a lot less than happy. It was at that moment that Paul saw his dad waiting for them. He led Stephanie over to him and said, "Hi dad," and then the two men hugged. Paul's dad said, "I've missed you son, we both have. It's been so long."

Paul released his dad and said, "I know, I'm sorry. We've had a lot to deal with. Dad this is Stephanie, Steph meet my dad Paul." Paul was pleased to see Stephanie smile warmly and say, "Very nice to meet you."

Paul thought that his dad sounded a little nervous, "Nice to meet you too Stephanie. Uh... can I carry your bag?"

Stephanie handed it over as she said, "Thank you."

They headed out of the airport and as Paul's dad drove them towards his house Paul was relieved that Stephanie joined in the conversation and whatever the previous problem had been seemed to be behind her or at least she was making a better job of hiding it. The conversation also seemed to put his dad's nerves at ease and the conversation was flowing freely by the time they arrived home.

Paul's parents owned a reasonably sized four bedroom house but even so Paul found himself wondering what the house was like that Stephanie was used to living in, certainly it must be a lot bigger and more luxurious than this. Paul found himself considering that maybe that was the problem, maybe Stephanie considered staying in his parent's house to be beneath her or something? Surely that couldn't be it, he was ninety nine per cent sure that although Stephanie could act like a princess at times she wasn't that bad. After all she had been living in hotel rooms with him for weeks. No, that couldn't be it. Thinking about it for so long had started to give Paul a headache.

They all got out of the car and Paul unloaded the bags from the trunk and handed Stephanie's over to his dad who was on carrying duty again. As they walked over to the front door it opened and Patricia appeared with a huge smile on her face and she rushed over to Paul, "Hello darling I've missed you so much." She grabbed him in a hug as he said, "Hey mom, I've missed you too."

Next was Stephanie's turn to receive a hug which surprised her a little. Patricia said, "Great to see you again Stephanie, come in, please." Stephanie said, "Hi Patricia, thank you for inviting me." Paul saw that his dad had already entered the house and he followed his mom and his girlfriend as they too entered and he closed the door behind him and heard Stephanie saying to Patricia, "You have a lovely home." Clearly that was one thing to cross off of the list of possibilities.

Paul dumped his bag near the bottom of the stairs next to Stephanie's and followed everyone into the living room. He flopped down onto one of the black leather couches next to Stephanie and sighed. Today had been a long and stressful day but he figured that at least the travelling was behind him now. Patricia asked if anyone would like a drink and then headed off to the kitchen to fulfil the requests.

Stephanie got up and said, "Where's the bathroom Paul?"

"Top of the stairs, turn right, first door."

Stephanie left the room and Paul's dad asked him, "Is she ok? She looks... stressed maybe?" Paul shrugged, "She's been like it all day dad. I think she's just nervous to meet you and to stay here. She'll be fine when she's settled in I'm sure." The two men chatted away for a few minutes as there was a lot to catch up on. Eventually Stephanie's voice came from the doorway, "Paul I need to speak with you."

Paul flashed a look of confusion at his dad which could not be seen by Stephanie as she was in the opposite direction. He stood and walked out of the living room and followed Stephanie to the end of the hallway and then saw her begin to climb the stairs. He asked, "Where are you going? What's going on?" Stephanie gave no reply so Paul followed her up the stairs and she stopped in the hallway and turned to face him. Paul said, "You're acting really strange you know that? What are we doing up here?" He suddenly took in the frightened expression on her face and asked, "Steph what is it?"

Stephanie was not wearing one of her short skirts as it did not seem appropriate for today's occasion, instead she wore jeans and a t-shirt. She put her hands into her pockets and said very quietly and nervously, "We need to talk in private... you're going to hate me." Paul's first thought was that she was about to tell him that she had slept with someone else but that made no sense. Why would she tell him now? He was totally confused now so he simply said, "What?"

He saw tears fill her eyes and then she said so softly that he thought he may have misheard, "Paul I'm pregnant." She removed a pregnancy test from the pocket of her jeans and showed it to him.


	34. Chapter 34

Paul took the pregnancy test that Stephanie was holding out towards him and looked at it as he heard her say timidly, "Are you angry? You're angry, right?"

Stephanie watched Paul look at the test and study it for a second, dreading his response. He say quietly, "Am I angry?" His tone made it perfectly apparent to her that he was. This was exactly what she had feared. Then she saw him look up from the test and at her and a huge smile burst onto his face and his eyes lit up in excitement. Se realised that he had been playing with her. He sounded overjoyed as he grabbed her in a hug and said, "How could I be angry? We're going to have a baby. I can't believe it."

Stephanie had let out a little squeal when she heard that he was happy about the news as she was ecstatic herself, she had just been terrified that Paul would not feel the same way. They were still embracing each other and Stephanie was blinking away the tears that she had been about to shed a moment before when Paul said worriedly, "Don't those things give out false positive results sometimes? We should do a second one so that we know for sure."

Squeezing him tightly Stephanie said, "That is the second one. I did one this morning in the hotel room, that's why I've been acting the way I have all day. I'm pregnant Paul." She thought that Paul sounded like he was a little child himself on Christmas morning, "Oh my god. I love you so much. Mom and dad will be so happy, let's go tell them."

He released Stephanie from his embrace and she cautioned him, "I love you too but we really shouldn't tell people this early Paul. You know... in case." Stephanie saw that Paul was way too excited to consider the logic of what she had said and this was confirmed when she heard, "I'm not going back down there and not saying anything. Come on." Stephanie laughed as Paul raced down the stairs and she followed at a more sensible pace. She was overjoyed and relieved that his reaction had been the exact opposite of what she had imagined. She could not even figure out now why she had assumed that he would be angry. She knew someone who quite possibly would be angry but that was a problem for another time.

By the time Stephanie reached the bottom of the stairs Paul was already in the kitchen at the opposite end of the hallway and she could hear him saying, "Mom come into the living room please." Patricia said, "I'm making coffee Paul you can see that. Give me a minute." Stephanie waited near the living room doorway and smiled as she heard Paul say excitedly, "No come now please. Come on." Patricia laughed, "What's wrong with you? Are you high?" They both walked out of the kitchen and Patricia saw the smile on Stephanie's face and asked with a smile of her own, "What are you two up to?"

As he led the way into the living room Paul said, "Mom, dad, we've got something to tell you." Stephanie followed them into the living room and looked at Paul as he delightedly broke the news to his expectant parents, "We've just found out some amazing news. Steph is pregnant." As he was saying it Stephanie suddenly imagined that they might get a lecture about being irresponsible as they had not been together very long or something but this was not what happened.

Patricia was standing near to Stephanie as she heard the news and she immediately turned and hugged Stephanie as she said, "Oh Stephanie, I'm so pleased for you. Congratulations." Paul's dad had got up from the couch was hugging him and congratulating his son and then the two parents swapped over and more hugs and congratulations were issued and accepted.

Paul had a smile on his face that he thought might have to be surgically removed. His girlfriend, the love of his life was pregnant. They were going to have a baby. Not only that his parents appeared to have taken a liking to Stephanie. He was overjoyed for the entirety of the rest of the evening as he sat on the couch with his pregnant girlfriend in his arms enjoying the conversation with his parents. As he held Stephanie he unconsciously had a hand on her stomach the whole time. Life could not possibly get better than this.

* * *

><p>Paul finished cleaning his teeth and walked back into the guest bedroom that belonged to himself and Stephanie for two nights. Stephanie was already in bed with the thick cover wrapped around her and Paul quickly undressed and climbed in beside her and lay down. After pulling some of the cover over to his own side and over himself he got comfortable and wrapped an arm around his girlfriend, around her stomach. As she had her back to him Paul couldn't see Stephanie's smile or the tears of happiness that began to collect in her eyes as he said in something close to wonder, "Our baby is in there."<p>

Stephanie held his arm to keep it in place, not that he intended to remove it, "I know, it's amazing." After a pause she said, "Paul... I've been doing a lot of thinking today. This changes a lot of things. We have to change the way we're living and I have to grow up."

Paul asked, "What do you mean?"

"I'm going to have to call my dad tomorrow and end this stupid... whatever it is. I need to fix things with my family and I need to get back to work. We're going to need all of the money we can get because we're obviously going to need to buy a house. We can't go on living out of hotel rooms."

Paul was overjoyed yet again at her change in attitude. Her pregnancy was the best thing that could have possibly happened for them and for so many reasons. He couldn't help wondering what Vince's reaction would be if Stephanie told him, "You're going to tell your dad that you're pregnant?"

"Well we've told your parents so I see no reason not to. Surely my family will be as happy as yours? Or happy at least?" Paul could tell that she was not convinced by her own words and neither was he. They lay there chatting for some time about what their future plans were going to be before Paul realised that Stephanie had drifted off to sleep. Paul was still much too excited to sleep himself and he kissed the back of her head and said quietly, "I love you Steph."

* * *

><p>There had been a very different atmosphere in Vince and Linda's kitchen earlier that night. Yet another argument had erupted between the two over Stephanie and Linda was raging, "Three weeks Vince! I haven't spoken to my daughter for three weeks and it's your fault! She won't answer my calls or Shane's calls and it's all because of your stupid stubborn attitude! I've had enough! You hear me? Enough! You're going to call her tomorrow and fix this!" She finished stacking some plates in a cupboard and slammed the door closed, causing the objects inside to rattle.<p>

Vince watched this from the doorway with a tired expression on his face. He missed his daughter too and he was coming to the realisation that Stephanie was not going to see things his way and come home. He held up his hands to placate his furious wife, "Alright, alright. Stop shouting. I'll call her tomorrow and tell her to come home."

Linda continued to rage as she removed more items from the dishwasher, "No you won't! You'll _invite_ them _both_ to come here! Stephanie and Paul are together and if they are happy then we should be happy for them. I don't know Paul but I trust Stephanie's judgment, if she's happy then I'm happy. You fix this Vince and you fix it tomorrow. I want our daughter back in my life, is that clear?"

Linda rarely lost her temper and when she did it was almost never to this extent. Vince caved in, "Yes, perfectly clear. I'll call Steph tomorrow and invite them both over here and we can all talk. We'll talk her into coming back to work and back home."

Linda stopped what she was doing and stood facing Vince. When she spoke she was a little calmer, "Be realistic Vince, she's probably not going to move back home now is she? She's living with Paul."

Vince replied angrily, "Yeah living out of god damned hotel rooms."

Linda's face reddened as she yelled, "Vince for the final time! If you don't fix this we're going to lose our daughter!"

Vince closed his eyes and rested his head against the wooden door frame in resignation, "Ok. You win. I'll accept that Steph and Paul are together and I'll invite them here and we'll all talk."

Linda turned around and resumed her work without reply, banging around with the items that she was unloading from the dishwasher. Vince walked away to head back to the living room and cursed himself silently for his stubbornness and his temper and he also cursed the fact that he had passed both of those traits on to his daughter. He told himself that Linda was right though, it was time to fix this and accept that his daughter was with a man she loved.


	35. Chapter 35

After a very enjoyable lunch had been finished and Stephanie's offer to wash the dishes had been rejected by Patricia she had put on her leather jacket and headed out into the large garden. This phone call needed to be made in private. Stephanie sat down in a seat at the patio table and took her phone from the pocket of her jeans. She sat there with it in her hand as it was suddenly a struggle to make herself call her dad. When she did call him what would she say? She had been trying to run the possible conversation through her head all morning but it had not really helped. Apologising for her attitude and agreeing to return to work would not be a problem as she had accepted that those things needed to be done. The problem was going to be how and when to tell her family that she was pregnant.

Taking in a deep breath Stephanie opened her phone and noticed that she had missed calls from her mom and from Shane, again. They had been calling multiple times per day ever since she had left home but she had kept her phone on silent mode the whole time and ignored the calls and hadn't replied to the text messages either. She considered calling Shane instead but then she told herself again that it was time to grow up now that she had a baby to be responsible for. It might be very early in their relationship but she was starting a family with Paul and acting like a spoiled teenager was no longer an option.

Commanding herself not to drag this out any longer as the apprehension was making things worse Stephanie scrolled through her contacts and then called her dad's number. The call went through and as she listened to the ringing sound she was still not sure if she preferred to get an answer or not. She did get an answer and Vince's voice sounded as though he had been very pleased to see her name on the screen as he answered, "Stephanie? Sweetheart? Are you ok?"

Suddenly Stephanie had tears pooling in her eyes. The sound of her dad's voice had brought the realisation of how much she missed her family to forefront of her mind, "I'm ok dad but I miss you guys."

The feeling was obviously mutual from the tone and the words that she heard next, "Then come home. We miss you too."

Wiping her eyes with her free hand but still failing to prevent tears escaping them Stephanie said, "I want to come home but I'm with Paul dad. I'm not leaving him, ever. So if you can't..."

"I know I reacted badly before Steph but I know that you love Paul. I'm not going to insult everyone's intelligence by saying I'm happy about it but I'm willing to accept it. We would like you both to come home and we can sit down and talk like adults instead of screaming at each other like kids. Can we do that princess?"

Stephanie gave up her futile attempts to stop her tears as they were now flowing much too freely down her cheeks, "Yes. Yes we can. I love you dad."

"I love you too sweetheart. Your mom would like to talk with you if that's ok?"

"Yes."

As the phone was being passed over Vince must have thought incorrectly that he had covered it properly as Stephanie heard a whisper that she presumed she was not supposed to, "I think she's crying."

Linda's voice quickly came on the phone, "Steph are you ok darling?"

Trying and failing to stop crying Stephanie said, "Yes. I just miss you guys and I want to come home. I want you to be happy for me and Paul. I love him mom, I love him so much," the crying had gotten worse with each word.

"I know you do and I am happy for you," Linda said as soothingly as she could. She was clearly able to tell from her daughters voice that she was crying heavily and it brought tears to her own eyes as she continued, "You know how stubborn your dad can be. You're as bad as each other but I know that this time he's the one in the wrong and so does he. Just come home Steph, please?"

Finally managing to get some semblance of control over her emotions Stephanie said, "I will mom. We're at Paul's parents place until tomorrow and then Paul has to be at Raw Monday so we'll come home Tuesday?"

It was a lot better than nothing but Linda said, "I wish you could come sooner."

Stephanie had almost managed to stop crying now and now she wanted to get off the phone as she felt the urge to tell her mom her news but at the same time she feared the reaction, "So do I mom but I can't. Tell dad I want to come back to work too ok? I need to get back inside the house."

"He'll be delighted to hear that darling, I love you."

The agony of not being able to tell her parents her news and the dread at the possible reaction, particularly from her dad suddenly added itself to the incredible upset Stephanie was feeling due to being away from her family and it was all too much for her to cope with. Tears began to flow again and she was almost begging for a positive reaction as she blurted out, "I'm pregnant mom."

There was silence on the other end of the phone which made Stephanie consider three possibilities. Hopefully Linda was trying to get away from Vince to continue the conversation but it was equally possible that she had fainted. Or maybe the phone's signal had died at that exact moment. There was only one way to find out, "Mom are you there?"

Stephanie guessed that she might have been correct with her first assumption as she heard Linda say softly, "Oh... my god."

"You just walked away from dad didn't you?" Stephanie asked. Linda sounded shocked but neither happy or angry which left Stephanie confused, "Yeah... pregnant? You're sure?"

"Yes mom. We found out yesterday, I did two tests. I wasn't going to tell you like this but it just kind of came out. Please tell me that you're happy for us?" Stephanie said with tears yet again pouring from her eyes.

"Of course I am Steph, I'm sorry. I'm delighted for you. Congratulations to both of you. I'm just worried about how your dad will take the news. Please stop crying darling."

Stephanie was worried about the same thing and she pleaded, "Mom can you please tell him for me? Please? I don't want to do it myself. I want to come home, I want to come home with Paul but we can't if dad's going to go wild at us."

There was a sigh on the other end of the call, "I'll talk to your dad. Come home on Tuesday as we said ok?"

Stephanie sniffed, "Ok. I miss you mom. I love you."

"I love you too sweetheart. Please don't cry any more. I'll talk to your dad and we'll see you both on Tuesday."

Wiping at her eyes again Stephanie said, "Ok, bye mom."

"Bye Steph, love you." With that the call was ended. Stephanie sat where she was for several moments as she stopped crying and tried to wipe her eyes to hide the fact that she had been. She had not expected to get so upset but the sound of her parents voices had finally made her realise how much she hated being away from them.

Finally feeling under control and also feeling cold from sitting outside in the winter air for much longer than she had intended Stephanie was about to get up to go back inside when the patio doors opened and Paul walked out wearing his own leather jacket. Sounding a little concerned he spoke as he closed the door, "Hey. You've been out here for ages, are you ok? Did you call your dad?"

Stephanie looked down at the patio table instead of at her boyfriend as she mumbled, "Yeah I called and uh..." The sentence did not get completed so Paul sat down next to Stephanie and said, "Oh no, don't tell me Vince went off at you again?"

Stephanie still did not look up and continued mumbling, "No dad was ok when I talked to him but then I talked to mom and I uh... told her."

"You told your mom that you're pregnant over the phone?"

Feeling Paul wrap an arm around her and gently pull her shoulders and head towards him to rest on his shoulder and chest Stephanie said, "I just blurted it out, I couldn't help it. I was crying and I felt so sad..."

Paul saw his girlfriend remove her head from his shoulder where it had only rested for a few seconds and as she looked at him he saw tears glistening in her eyes. Paul stood and took her right hand and pulled her gently to her feet as he said, "Come here." Embracing her tightly he continued, "Why are you crying Steph? Surely your mom was happy for us?"

Resting her head on Paul's shoulder again and feeling his arms around her at least provided some comfort, "She was... I think. But she's going to tell dad and I don't know how he's going to react. I miss them Paul and I want to go home and see them."

Paul's caring voice and the lack of hesitation in the offer he made made her burst in to tears again as he said, "Then we'll go tomorrow." Despite it being the thing that she wanted to do more than anything in the world right now Stephanie still found herself trying to talk him out of it for some unexplainable reason, "I told them we would go Tuesday. We've been invited to stay here for two days Paul, we can't just walk out on your parents like that. You've not seen them for ages and..."

Paul held Stephanie's head gently to his shoulder with one hand and kept his other arm wrapped around her, keeping her tightly pressed against him almost as if he was afraid to let her go, "Steph you're crying about missing your parents and I can't bear to see you sad like this so we're going and we're going tomorrow. We'll surprise them, that will get things off to a good start and then we'll talk with your dad and things will be fine. We can fly back with him for Raw on Monday. Hopefully you'll be back working too. My parents will understand, we can come back next weekend or something."

Although her vision was blurred by her tears as she looked up and into Paul's eyes she saw the unconditional love that she felt for him returned in equal measure and it gave her a strange feeling in her chest. She knew without doubt that this was the man she intended to spend the rest of her life with, "You would do that for me?"

The reply was simple, "Of course. I love you."

Stephanie reached up and kissed him, "I love you too. I don't know what I would do without you."

Paul's embrace tightened again, "You never will be without me. Come on, let's go tell my parents and get a flight sorted for tomorrow." They walked towards the patio doors with arm around each others waists.

* * *

><p>"Vince we need to talk," Linda said as she walked back into the living room after ending the call with her daughter. Her husband was slouching back on the couch and watching some kind of action movie on the TV. His uninterested response made clear that he was responding to the fact that she had said something but had not actually listened to what it was, "What? I'm watching this."<p>

Linda solved that problem by walking over and turning off the TV which brought a sigh from Vince and a repeat of his previous question only now with irritation instead of disinterest, "What?"

"You're really irritating me lately Vince. I need to talk to you about Steph..."

Vince cut in, "Don't tell me you somehow managed to talk her out of coming home? Damn it Linda..."

Linda stood in front of the TV with her hands on her hips and an angry expression on her face. Vince considered that he had been seeing this sight quite often recently as she said, "I'm trying not to lose my temper with you again Vince, want to try making that a little easier?"

Vince did not want yet another row, "Sorry. What is it?"

Linda was dreading this almost as much as her daughter would have been as she walked over to the couch and sat down next to her husband and said, "I'm going to tell you something and I want you to stay calm when I do. No shouting and no ranting Vince, please?"

Vince understandably did not like the sound of that but determined not to have another argument he agreed, "Fine, just tell me what you're trying to tell me."

Linda took her husbands hand and after a final couple of seconds long pause she said, "Steph was very upset about coming home because she thinks you're going to be angry..."

"I'm not, I already told her that."

"She told me that she's pregnant Vince," Linda said. Silence descended on the room.


	36. Chapter 36

Silence descended on the living room of Vince and Linda's house as she gave him the news. She watched as every part of her husband's body and face tensed. Before the explosion could take place Linda said gently, "She's not our baby girl any more Vince. She's twenty three, she''s old enough to make her own decisions and she's with a man she loves. We're going to be Grandparents Vince, our first Grandchild. Please try to be happy about this."

The explosion was avoided as Vince seemed to deflate before he said quietly, "I'm really finding it hard Linda and you're wrong, she will always be our baby girl."

Linda put an arm around him and worked her magic on him with her soothing voice, "I know what you mean but we've got to let her make her own decisions now. She's not a kid any more. She wants to come home and she misses us as much as we miss her but she doesn't want to come here if you're going to rage at her or more importantly at Paul. You're going to be a Granddad to Steph and Paul's child Vince, surely that makes you happy if you really think about it? Imagine having our Grandchild running around this living room Vince, imagine how amazing that would be."

Vince was clearly trying hard to rid himself of his anger as he sat with his eyes closed and after a moment slowly let out a faltering breath, "A Grandchild? Granddad Vince?"

After so many years together Linda knew her husband inside out and at this moment she knew that she had finally made a breakthrough as she beamed, "And Grandma Linda."

A hint of a smile began to appear on Vince's face and he said, "A future WWF Champion? Or Women's Champion?"

Linda laughed, "Without a doubt. So you're pleased about this? You're not going to go wild at them when they show up on Tuesday?"

Vince shook his head and said, "I'm a stubborn old bastard Linda, even I know that but I'm not going to apologise for caring about our children. In answer to your questions yes I am pleased and no I won't go wild at them. I just want to see Steph and congratulate her and give her a great big hug."

Linda planted a soft kiss on her husbands cheek, "I'd rather you be stubborn and care than not care. When they get here you're going to shake hands with Paul and you're going to apologise to the man. I'm sure you've been treating him like crap at work, I know how you work when you're in that frame of mind."

Vince nodded and said almost guiltily, "Yeah I have. I should apologise. Uh... Linda... They're having a baby so they'll obviously need a place of their own."

"Obviously. What are you thinking?"

Vince finally managed a wide smile, "Maybe we could help them out with that. We did it for Shane and Marissa."

Linda felt tears welling up in her eyes at her husband's drastic change of heart, "Oh Vince I didn't think of that. Yes, we have to do that."

* * *

><p>As Paul and Stephanie walked back through the patio door into the living room of his parent's house it became immediately apparent that Stephanie had not made as good a job as they thought of hiding the fact that she had been crying as Patricia immediately asked with concern, "Stephanie are you okay?"<p>

Paul took off his leather jacket as he answered for his girlfriend, "Guys Steph is missing her family real bad and we've decided to fly out tomorrow so that she can go home."

Stephanie was hit by another wave of guilt at being the reason that Paul and his parents would not get to spend the time together that they had planned and she found herself starting to cry yet again as she said, "I'm so sorry."

At the sight of her tears Patricia was up quickly from the couch and made it to Stephanie faster than Paul could as he was hanging his jacket over the back of a chair and she hugged her, "Don't be silly sweetheart. If you want to go see your family then you need to go. We'll drive you to the airport tomorrow, right Paul?" This question was directed at her husband who answered, "Of course."

Although the hug from Patricia was appreciated Stephanie really only wanted Paul and she gently separated herself from the older woman and retreated into the comfort of her boyfriend's arms as she said, "I don't know why I keep crying, I can't help it."

"We've had a lot of stress to deal with and you're missing your family. It's only natural Steph. You'll be fine tomorrow when you get home, I promise," Paul comforted as he once again held his girlfriend tightly. In response Stephanie whimpered, "You can't promise. You don't know what dad will say or do."

Paul had to admit reluctantly, "You're right."

The rest of the afternoon and evening seemed to drag by so slowly for Stephanie. She liked Paul's parents a lot and the dinner that they ate was incredible but she simply did not want to be there. All she wanted to do was get to bed and sleep and wake up the next day knowing that she was going home. Despite this as she finally lay in bed she had started worrying unnecessarily about what would happen if they made their surprise visit and her parents were not home. It really was starting to drive her crazy, all she wanted to do was see her family. She decided that when they had talked to her mom and dad and then she would call Shane and ask him to come over too. Shane lived locally with his wife Marissa so hopefully there could be a reunion with the whole family. If only her dad could just be happy for her.

Paul had already drifted off to sleep with his arm wrapped around his girlfriend's stomach as was already starting to become a habit that he had not even noticed himself. It wasn't something that he even did consciously, it just happened. He could not hear Stephanie's quiet plea, "Be happy for me dad, please."

* * *

><p>It was hard to tell who was the most nervous of the two people in the back of the cab as it neared the end of it's journey from the airport to Vince and Linda's house. Paul had never been there but he sensed that they must be near mostly from the size of the houses he could see on the streets they were driving on but also from the increasing tension that he picked up on from his girlfriend who sat next to him looking out of the window on her own side of the cab.<p>

They both glanced at each other at the same time and Paul saw tension as plain as day on Stephanie's beautiful face and she asked him, "This will be okay won't it?" Paul was impressed with the confidence he managed to put into his voice when he didn't feel any at all, "Of course. Your family miss you Steph, they'll be delighted to see you."

Stephanie looked sad, "It's not that part that I doubt... we're here."

Paul looked out of the window at the huge house that the cab had pulled up in front of. It was set back a fair distance from the street and had an immaculately paved driveway and an even better maintained lawn. There were lights on inside even though it was lunch time due to the dull winters day so clearly someone was home. The cars must have been in the large garage at the end of the driveway. The place looked incredible and yet Paul dreaded going anywhere near it. It had to be done though so he paid the cab driver and got out. Stephanie was already removing their bags from the trunk until Paul said, "I'll get the bags, I don't want you carrying things."

Mainly due to the tension she had been feeling Stephanie laughed much more than was necessary before saying, "I'm pregnant not disabled Paul, I can carry a bag."

Paul took a bag in each hand after slamming the trunk closed and watching the cab pull away and said firmly, "No you can't, not while I'm here to do it."

Stephanie beamed at Paul and he still felt the same way about that smile as he had the first time he saw it. She was so stunningly beautiful and now she was going to be the mother of his child, even if Vince went wild that was not going to change. This made Paul feel a lot better as they walked up the driveway. Stephanie took her keys from the pocket of her leather jacket but before they reached the front door Paul said, "Don't walk in, ring the bell. It will make the surprise better."

With a nervous smile Stephanie did as he said. It seemed to Paul that it was taking forever for someone to answer the door but it was in fact less than twenty seconds before the door opened and Vince appeared. His eyes widened and a huge smile burst onto his face as he said in obvious delight, "Steph! Oh god I'm so glad to see you!"

Paul did not have to force himself to smile any more. Seeing how happy his girlfriend was as she rushed into her dad's arms was all that he needed from today, he did not care if he got the riot act himself. Stephanie was blubbering again, "I missed you daddy. I love you."

Vince held his daughter and Paul noticed that he had not even been looked at yet as Vince said, "I missed you too sweetheart, I'm so happy you're home and I'm so happy for you that you're pregnant," finally Vince made eye contact with Paul as he said, "Both of you."

As Paul smiled Stephanie burst into tears and asked as if she might have misheard, "You are?"

Vince kissed her forehead and said, "Of course I am. I'm sorry about how I've been acting." As he was saying this Linda came out the kitchen asking, "Who is it Vince? Oh my god, Steph!" Linda rushed over and Vince released Stephanie to embrace her mother and he returned his gaze to Paul. The two men stood face to face for a long moment and despite what Vince had already said Paul wondered what would come next but then Vince held out his hand and said simply, "I'm sorry. No hard feelings?"

Without hesitation Paul shook the man's hand firmly and said, "Of course not, no hard feelings. I can understand why you feel the way you do... or did, but we want the same thing Vince. We want Steph to be happy, she means the world to both of us."

Stephanie had heard this exchange and she was now sobbing into her mom's shoulder but unlike all of the previous times she had cried in the last twenty four hours it was now from relief and happiness. Linda was trying to get her daughter to stop crying as Vince said to Paul, "Come in, it's freezing out here. Let's get some coffee on the go."

Paul walked into his girlfriend's home for the first time and closed the door. When this was done he looked around him and thought that this place was indeed incredible. His parent's were by no means poor and their house was very nice but this was something else entirely. Linda had managed to calm Stephanie down and had produced some tissue from somewhere that Stephanie was using to wipe her eyes as she said, "It's so good to be home."

Following her husband into the kitchen Linda said, "Let's have some coffee and something to eat and we can talk, ok? I'm sure you have things that you want to say and we have something to tell you, right Vince?"

Vince's voice came from the kitchen, "That's right."

Stephanie was clearly wondering what that was supposed to mean as she walked over to Paul who was thinking the same thing. He felt strange inside as she smiled at him and he realised that no matter how long he had been in the relationship with Jo he had not loved her, not truly loved her anyway. What he felt now was true love as he looked into Stephanie's beautiful, perfect green eyes and said with emotion in his voice, "I told you it would be fine. I love you."

As she nestled herself into him Stephanie kissed him and said, "I couldn't be happier than I am right now, I love you."


	37. Chapter 37

Bacon and egg sandwiches and coffee had been made for everyone by Linda and they had all taken seats around the large wooden table in the dining room. Paul eagerly attacked his sandwich as he heard Stephanie and Vince both begin to speak at the same time. They both stopped at the same time to avoid talking over each other and then with a laugh Stephanie said, "Please let me go first dad."

Vince smiled and said, "Okay, you first," before starting into his own sandwich. After eating her first mouthful of her sandwich Stephanie said, "Okay mom, dad. I've done a lot of thinking since we found out that I'm pregnant and I've realised that I need to grow up and stop acting like a kid. I'm with Paul and I'm going to have a child. I have responsibilities now and my stupid attitude has to go. I want to make things right with you guys and I want to come back to work for as long as I'm able. We're going to need all of the money we can get as we obviously need to buy a house. I want to apologise for the upset that I've caused in these last few weeks. I shouldn't have walked out like I did and I'm sorry."

Silence descended on the room apart from the ticking of a clock as everyone took in this impassioned speech. Paul felt very proud of his girlfriend, Linda bit her bottom lip and Vince continued to smile as he chewed on his food. Stephanie said nervously, "Don't all speak at once." After a moment Vince was the one to speak, "We may have had arguments Stephanie but you were certainly not the only one in the wrong. I'm very proud of you for what you just said and I need to apologise too. I already apologised to you outside Paul but again to both of you, I'm sorry."

Paul nodded but opted to remain silent. Stephanie asked nervously despite what she had already heard in the hallway earlier, "So you're happy for us? You're okay with us being together?" She still needed final and absolute confirmation.

Linda spoke for the first time, "Of course we are sweetheart. In fact we've talked about it and we have an offer to make, right Vince?"

After finishing another bite of his sandwich Vince confirmed, "Right. When Shane and Marissa moved into their first house we helped them out with the money for it. We don't want you paying interest to some mortgage company. Find somewhere that you like and we'll buy it for you..."

Paul could not believe what he was hearing and he held up a hand to stop Vince and said with his mouth full of sandwich, "I can't let you guys do that. We can't take that kind of money from you, right Steph?"

"I think dad means to effectively loan us the money not to give it to us, right dad?" Stephanie asked with a smile.

With a nod Vince said, "That's right. You can pay it back to us when you can afford it and it saves you paying any interest or worrying about things with the baby. We're not taking no for an answer either. As I said we did this for Shane and Marissa and now we're going to do it for you."

Paul was stunned by this generosity as it was the last thing he had expected prior to making this visit. He had thought that getting fired or assaulted would be more likely than this. It was a cleverly thought out offer as Stephanie's parents must have known that they would both outright refuse to take the money for a house but now that they had been told that it would be repaid how could they refuse? Why would they refuse? He tried to think of a way to put his gratitude into words but failed, "I don't know what to say Vince, Linda. I really don't. Thank you." Stephanie added, "Yes, thank you both so much."

Linda said kindly, "That's all you need to say." After draining her coffee cup she asked, "Would anyone like more coffee?" Nobody wanted any so Linda collected up the now empty plates and cups and with a smile she said, "I'll leave you to it, there's lots of housework to be done."

As his wife walked out of the room Vince said to Stephanie, "You're serious about returning to work?" He was hoping that she was but things could not simply return to the way they had been before she walked out. A storyline reason for Stephanie's absence had needed to be put together quickly and therefore now Stephanie McMahon and Triple H's on screen marriage and relationship were over. If she returned to work it would not be as Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley and she would not be able to work with Paul. Vince hoped that this was not about to lead to an argument as Stephanie said eagerly, "Yeah I'm serious. We're going to need the money and besides I love my job and I miss it like crazy. I know I obviously can't do anything in the ring but I can still manage Paul and do talking segments in the ring."

Here we go Vince thought before replying, "I'm glad you want to come back and I don't have a problem with it in terms of your pregnancy but you two can't work together. We ended that angle when you quit so we'll have to come up with something else for you. I've already been thinking about this since you said you were coming home as I hoped that you would agree to come back to work and I have an idea for you."

"Oh dad," Stephanie whined, "You can get us back together somehow. Just have it that we fixed the marriage or something."

Sensing that this might end up in an argument Paul intervened, "Your dad is right Steph, after some of the things they've had me say about you on screen it would look stupid if we got back together this quickly. Maybe we can do a storyline that gets us back together in the future but for right now let's listen to your dad's idea, ok? What's the idea Vince?"

Vince had expected that if anything Paul would take Stephanie's side in this so he was pleasantly surprised by what he had just heard. He hoped Stephanie would stick by what she had said earlier about growing up and did not start being stubborn again. She seemed to have taken Paul's advice and she looked to be listening as he said, "We already had those few segments before you quit where you were uh... protecting I guess you could call it... Kurt Angle's undefeated streak. We can have you return to manage Kurt. It will be good because we're going to put the European and Intercontinental titles on him soon."

Paul could not help himself being the first one to respond, "Both titles? Really?"

"Yeah, until Wrestlemania. So what about it Steph?"

Successfully fighting a brief urge to continue whining and attempting to get her own way to continue to work with Paul Stephanie attempted to view the idea of working with Kurt from a professional perspective. She had to admit that the basics of the idea made sense. There had been a hint of chemistry written between the two characters in the previous angle before she had quit and if Kurt was getting a push as big as her dad had just said then having a manager with him made sense. She would rather work with Paul but they would still be at the arena together so she reasoned that it was not a huge deal to actually perform with someone else. In any case she was sure that her dad would could write them back together soon. She asked, "I guess you haven't mentioned this to Kurt yet?"

"No. I'll do that tomorrow but he'll like the idea. Why wouldn't he?"

Stephanie smiled, "Okay... Okay I like it. You're okay with this right Paul?"

Paul smiled, "Of course. It's a good idea and it will be great for you to be back on TV."

Vince smiled too, "Great so we're all agreed? I'll get this written and we can have you back a week from tomorrow."

"We're all agreed. Dad I want to call Shane and tell him that I'm home and ask him to come over with Marissa," Stephanie said.

"Good idea but ask them to come this evening. You've just volunteered your mom to cook dinner for everyone."

That was exactly what happened. Linda already had a large joint of beef cooking and she that it was big enough to feed the whole family for dinner. Stephanie made the call to her brother and apologised for ignoring his calls for so long. After being assured that it was all forgotten as long as she was okay Stephanie told Shane that she was back home and that Paul was with her and that everyone would like it very much if he and Marissa could come over for dinner. The other bigger piece of news was obviously left to be delivered face to face. Stephanie knew that Shane would be delighted, he adored his little sister and she was sure that he liked Paul. She chastised herself for assuming that Shane had ratted to her dad when he had seen her kissing Paul in the hotel lobby that night. She knew deep down that Shane would not do something like that to her.

* * *

><p>Later that afternoon Linda had made a start on the rest of the food that would be served with the beef and asked Vince for a hand as it was a rush to get everything ready before Shane and Marissa showed up. This left Paul and Stephanie alone in the expansive living room relaxing on a black leather couch with Stephanie resting her head on his shoulder. Yet again Paul had a hand on his girlfriend's stomach without realising it. Stephanie had noticed that he kept doing it but she did not say anything. She found it adorable but she was afraid that if she commented on it he might stop doing it. She was slightly nervous to bring up her next question in case there was a disagreement but it had to be talked about sooner or later, "Paul... where are we going to look for our house?"<p>

Her mind was immediately put at ease. This man truly was amazing, in fact he was perfect in every respect. His simple response was, "It'll have to be near here won't it? You need to be near the office for your day job and we'll need one of our families to help us with this one," as he said it he squeezed Stephanie's stomach very gently with his fingers and the gesture and the words he had spoken melted her heart and she had to try hard to prevent tears filling her eyes again as she said softly, "But you'll be away from your family."

Paul shrugged slightly, "I'm away from them now. It's not ideal but this is what we have to do. As long as I have you I have more than enough to keep me happy. And then when the baby comes... when can we find out if we have a boy or a girl? I don't know anything about this stuff."

Stephanie smiled, "That's not for some time yet. I think it's about twenty weeks when you can learn the sex."

Paul sounded disappointed almost as if he wanted to know tomorrow, "Twenty weeks? How many are you now do you think?"

"Maybe four... five. Don't worry there's plenty to look forward to."

Paul beamed, "I already am. I'm going to enjoy every minute of it. We both are."

With a loud laugh Stephanie said, "I'm seriously doubting I'll enjoy every minute but I do know what you mean."

At that moment the doorbell rang, Shane and Marissa had arrived. Stephanie sat up as Paul said happily, "Time to give out the good news again."


	38. Chapter 38

Paul had previously met Shane's wife Marissa on a couple of brief occasions. She had spent a short time working for WWF as a backstage interviewer. She was a beautiful woman there was no doubt about that, she had long dark hair not unlike Stephanie's and a brilliant smile which was now on display as she walked into the living room followed by her husband.

Following Stephanie's example Paul stood to great them and hugs, handshakes and greetings were exchanged all round. It was not really a great surprise to Paul but he still felt relief that Shane seemed to be friendly towards him and pleased about the fact that his sister was in a relationship with him. They all sat and after a few minutes of catch up chatter Stephanie took in the fact that her mom and dad had deliberately not joined them in the room and she glanced at Paul and he nodded slightly. This was the time to tell Shane and Marissa their news.

Eagerly Stephanie began, "Guys, Paul and I have something that we would like to tell you."

Shane exaggerated a wink at his wife and said jokingly, "Hear it goes, she's going to tell us she's pregnant now." He laughed but then stopped as his sister beamed back at him. Marissa asked a little louder than necessary out of excitement, "Steph?"

Stephanie's grin got wider and Paul was now wearing one too as she said, "It's true, I'm pregnant. We found out Friday."

"Oh my god," Shane said with a shocked laugh. His words were echoed by Marissa as he stood and hurried over to his sister who also rose from the couch she had been sitting on and accepted his hug and kiss on the cheek. Shane said, "I didn't think this would be something that you would beat me to. I'm so pleased for you. Both of you."

After releasing Stephanie to accept congratulations from his wife Shane turned to Paul and decided against a handshake, going instead straight for a hug, "Congratulations man. I know how happy you make each other and I'm delighted for you."

Returning the hug and surprisingly not feeling uncomfortable Paul said, "Thanks Shane, really appreciate that buddy. We can't wait, we can't even believe it yet really. Well I can't anyway."

When everyone had returned to their seats the conversation was quickly dominated by the two women excitedly babbling about babies and everything associated with them. Paul was happy to make idle chatter with Shane after informing him that Stephanie also intended to return to work. He would also sneak an occasional glance at his girlfriend. She was so happy that it almost radiated from her. The time seemed to fly by until Vince and Linda had served the food and everyone was called into the dining room to begin the meal.

Seemingly out of nowhere a few minutes later Shane asked, "Dad you remember that idea you had for Wrestlemania before uh... a few weeks ago? The four way elimination match?"

Linda groaned, "Shane every time you come over here you end up talking business with your dad. Do we really have to?" Marissa chirped in, "She's right, every time it's the same."

With a grin Vince said, "I remember it. You and I are the only ones who know about it as I obviously didn't think we could do it now. You're thinking we could do it?"

Paul asked after swallowing a mouthful of the amazing beef, "What idea is this?"

Linda looked at Marissa and shook her head. The men were lost from any other possible conversation now, this much was obvious. Stephanie also listened eagerly as she had picked up on the fact that her involvement was required in whatever this idea was. Shane explained, "Dad thought up a four way match for the title and there would be a McMahon managing each competitor. We'll have to change it though because you can't be with Paul, Steph. Maybe we..."

"I'm managing Kurt now," Stephanie helped out, "Is he in this thing?"

Thoughtfully Vince said, "He wasn't but I guess he could be. We would have to scrap the idea of giving him the two titles but this idea is better. So we have Steph with Kurt..."

Stephanie cut in and tried once more to get what she really wanted, "It's a real shame we can't figure it out that I can get back with Paul."

"Maybe we can," Shane said, "I guess I'm going to be with Paul, I know you're going to be with The Rock, dad and you want mom with Mick Foley."

Linda had not really been listening until now and she spoke reluctantly, "You want me out there for the Wrestlemania main event? Vince, really?"

Vince placated her, "Relax, we'll have Mick eliminated first, you won't be out there long."

Shaking her head slightly Stephanie said, "I don't know how you can not enjoy being out there mom, I miss it like you wouldn't believe and it's only been a few weeks. Shane you said maybe we can, what did you mean?"

The men had all virtually stopped eating now as they were lost in the conversation as Shane continued, "The plan was for Triple H to retain the title..."

Unable to help himself Paul exclaimed, "I'm going to win the Wrestlemania main event? This is awesome."

With a smile Shane continued, "Yeah. Dad I know you wanted it to come down to Triple H and The Rock but what if we have it come down to Triple H and Angle and Angle has the match won but Steph pulls the referee out of the ring and stops the count. Angle goes over to the ropes and leans through yelling at her like, "What the hell are you doing?" and Steph slaps him. Angle turns around and boom! Pedigree, Triple H wins and Steph gets in the ring, big celebration, hugging, kissing, all the rest of it."

With wide eyes Stephanie said eagerly, "Can we do that dad? Please?"

After a few moments Vince began to nod his head and then said, "Yeah... I like it. Okay, that's what we'll do."

"Now eat your food," Linda ordered with a laugh from Marissa. The conversation returned to family matters as everyone resumed eating and inevitably the subject of babies did not take long to come back up. Everyone apart from Stephanie drank wine over dinner and dessert and as she looked around she felt warm inside as there was so much smiling and laughter around her. Just two days before Stephanie had been terrified that she was about to be a pregnant woman left on her own. For some irrational reason she had thought that Paul would be angry at the news and would leave her and that her family would want nothing to do with her either. Now everything was great, the next things to do were return to work and then look for a house to buy with the man she loved to raise her family in and she could not wait to do either. Life was perfect.

* * *

><p>The next night although she was not going to be back on the show until the following week Stephanie had gone to the arena for Raw with Paul. She had smiled to herself as Paul was informed that he now had his own locker room again and now they were sitting in there with Paul already changed into his ring gear and working on taping up his wrists. It was time to let him know the reason that she had insisted on coming with him, "I came here for a reason tonight Paul. I was thinking about returning to work and only one thing worried me and I'm going to fix it tonight."<p>

Paul looked at her in confusion, "What are you talking about?"

"I need to speak to Jo. I can't have her coming at me and trying to hit me or something now can I? I need to go and apologise to her and we both need to agree that this stupid feud or whatever it is needs to stop. I said that I intend to grow up and I meant it."

Not sounding convinced Paul said, "Maybe I should come with you, last time she saw you was when you broke her nose. I doubt she's forgotten that."

"No Paul, I'm not hiding behind you on this. The woman might hate me but she isn't crazy. As I said we need to end this."

Paul stood and then leaned down for a kiss which lasted for a long, pleasurable moment before he said, "I need to go, my match is up next. If you're going to do this be careful okay?"

"I'll be fine," Stephanie assured him as he left the locker room, wishing that she genuinely felt the confidence that she had managed to put into her voice. She was not looking forward to this at all but it needed to be done, there was the baby to take care of now.


	39. Chapter 39

A/N: I've been promising this chapter for today for some time and I got it done ahead of time so I will be able to get an update into The Chosen One later too. If you haven't checked that story out yet please consider doing so.

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><p>The uncomfortable feeling Stephanie had in her stomach as she walked towards the women's locker room was fear. She had no doubt about that. It had been one thing to get in Jo's face to try and provoke a reaction when the worst that could happen was that Jo would hit her and therefore be highly likely to lose her job but now it was a different ballgame altogether. She had said to Paul that Jo was not crazy but Stephanie was not so sure about that in reality, at least when it came to the two of them being in close proximity. What if Jo attacked her on first sight before she even got to say anything? This could end really badly. She should have waited until the end of the night and had Paul come with her as he had said.<p>

The other unavoidable problem was that she was going to have to tell Jo that she was pregnant. It was not something that she wanted to do but she had to make absolutely certain that the beast of a woman did not ever decide to go off the deep end and hit her or something. Of course telling Jo would mean that everyone else in the locker room would find out too but Stephanie had a suspicion that her dad would tell people anyway, just so that they were extra careful when she was around ringside during Kurt's matches. You never knew when an accident could happen and safe was definitely better than sorry. People would have started to suspect sooner than later as she had already decided to wear a dress every week from now on instead of the more revealing outfits she preferred. Tonight she had selected a red number which Paul had said made her look glamorous, which had sent her cheeks a similar shade of red to the dress. The point was that when the pregnancy started to show she would be able to keep it hidden from the public eye for a little longer this way.

Upon reaching the women's lockers room Stephanie took a deep breath and let it out slowly to compose herself, forced a smile onto her face and opened the door and walked in. There she was. Joanie was in there, obviously about to begin changing into her ring gear. The woman was huge and scary looking, especially as she turned to see who had walked in and her eyes locked on Stephanie, instantly narrowing in anger.

Luckily Tori and Trish were also in the locker room and they were alive to the fact that a fight might quickly break out as Joanie began to walk towards Stephanie. As Stephanie hurriedly said, "I'm here to talk Jo, calm down. Please," Tori and Trish had stood in between the two and Trish added to Joanie, "Leave it Jo. Think about what you're doing."

Joanie stopped in front of Tori and Trish, not that they could have actually stopped her if she really went for Stephanie and she growled, "What could I possibly have to talk to you about you little slut?"

Summoning all of her courage Stephanie asked Tori and Trish, "Could you two leave us, please?"

"Are you sure?" Trish asked. Whilst they were certainly not friends of Stephanie the two women were clearly not sold on the idea of leaving her alone with Joanie.

"I'm not here for a fight or even an argument. We can talk without fighting, right Jo?"

Joanie growled angrily, "Don't fucking Jo me. You two can go, I won't tear her in half unless she says the wrong thing."

Still looking unsure Tori and Trish walked out of the locker room. Stephanie felt her heart hammering in her chest, "I want us to put this feud behind us. It needs to end because..."

Joanie moved closer to Stephanie and said menacingly, "You broke my nose you little bitch."

"I know. I know I did. Jo I'm pregnant, I can't get involved in things like that any more. I've got a baby to consider. Please..." Stephanie backed off a little as she spoke.

"You came in here to tell me that Paul got you pregnant?"

Taking another step back Stephanie said, "Yes. Please, let's just stay away from each other. That's all I want. We can't keep getting in each other's faces looking for reactions from each other and we certainly can't get into fights."

Joanie shook her head, "You're too much you know that? It was you who kept getting in my face looking for reactions and pissing me off. Stay out of my face and I won't hit you. Now fuck off."

Stephanie scuttled towards the door, "I'm going. Uh... thank you." As she left the room she heard Joanie mumble to herself, "Thank you? Pathetic bitch."

Stephanie did not care what Joanie thought of her nervous rambling, she was just glad that the conversation and more importantly the feud with Joanie were over. Now she could feel excited about returning to work the next week knowing that she was safe and more importantly her baby was safe. She let out a nervous sigh as she headed back to Paul's locker room.

* * *

><p>The following Monday was the big day, Stephanie was returning to TV as Kurt Angle's manager. She had spent a long time on her make up and her hair and she had bought a new dress for the occasion, a very expensive black number that Paul had not seen yet. He had headed down to the lobby an hour earlier to have a catch up drink in the bar with his old friend Shawn Michaels who was making a rare appearance on Raw tonight himself.<p>

It was not long after Stephanie had finished getting ready that Paul returned to the room. As he walked in he stopping in his tracks as he looked at his girlfriend and said softly, "My god, you look beautiful. So beautiful."

Stephanie felt her cheeks warming in embarrassment, "Thank you. I'm ready to leave if you are?"

Paul already had his bag packed and waiting near the door but he didn't pick it up. Instead he walked over to Stephanie and kissed her. The kiss was slow and passionate and they both wished that it could last all night but in truth they were already running a little late as Paul had lost track of time in the bar with Shawn. He had only had one beer as he obviously couldn't drink more than that before appearing on Raw but the two men had gotten lost in their conversation.

Vince was sparing no expenses to make this night special for his daughter. He had insisted that a limo would collect them from the hotel and drive them to the arena. As they sat in the back of it on the way there Paul said to Stephanie, "I bet you'll get some kind of cheer when Kurt brings you out. The fans absolutely hate me and after what they had me say about you, plus the fact that Angle is going up against me and how Shane screwed him over last week when he aligned himself with me it's almost enough to turn both of you."

Stephanie smiled, "It will be nice but I like playing the bad guy more to be honest."

"Well you'll be back to that soon enough. You'll be public enemy number one after Wrestlemania."

Stephanie's smile grew mischievous as she said, "Good." Paul could not help a smile of his own, he loved the mischievous side that Stephanie had.

* * *

><p>Later that night Paul was proved to be correct. Kurt Angle went to the ring and complained about Shane McMahon and Triple H screwing him over the previous week and announced that he had decided to take action. He had decided to bring in a manager of his own. Someone that knew Triple H very well and certainly someone that had no love lost for him. He introduced Stephanie McMahon and she did indeed get a positive reaction. Not an overwhelming one by any means but certainly positive.<p>

As she walked down the entrance ramp Stephanie did not have to fake the huge smile on her face. She had never felt happier than this in her life and it was only going to get better. She was back to work and loving it and the next thing to do was look for a family home with the man she loved.


	40. Chapter 40

A/N: Perhaps unsurprisingly this story won the vote which was quite a success so look out for another one in the future. I decided to do the update today as I may not get an opportunity to log on tomorrow as we have to visit both my parents and my wife's so we'll be mad busy all day. Thanks to those who voted and Merry Christmas everyone.

I'd also like to dedicate this chapter to a friend who has helped me a lot by always having enthusiasm and interest in my ideas and discussing them with me at length and also providing constructive criticism on my writing style. I've never actually said how much I appreciate it so Tay, thank you :)

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><p>Paul looked in wonder at the picture on the screen in front of him. He had many happy memories in his life, many things that he would never forget but this was easily top of the list. It was a moment he would not forget as long as he lived. He turned his head to the left and looked at the expression on his girlfriend's face and he could tell that she was thinking the same thing.<p>

They had just seen their baby for the first time and had been told that everything was okay and that Stephanie was thirteen weeks pregnant. This was the dating scan and despite how many times Paul had asked Stephanie, hoping that somehow the answer might change it was still too soon for them to be told if their baby was a boy or a girl. He had learned that this would happen at the next scan, at approximately twenty weeks. Seven weeks seemed like an eternity to have to wait. This baby was the thing he was looking forward to most in his life. He still found the thought that he was going to be a dad to be frankly amazing.

He had spent many sleepless nights with his arm around Stephanie holding her stomach with his mind running wild with all the things that the three of them would do throughout his child's life, all the special moments they would share as a family. He was going to be the best dad in the world to his child, he was absolutely determined about that.

Stephanie was indeed thinking similar things as she looked at the child she was carrying for the first time. She had never imagined that she could possibly meet someone who would make her as happy as Paul did, who would care for her the way Paul did and she had certainly never imagined when she started working on TV for WWF less than a year ago that she would be a mother anything like this quickly. She was loving it.

When Paul and Stephanie walked out of the hospital shortly afterwards Paul immediately turned his phone on and said excitedly, "I have to call mom and dad. Call your parents too."

Stephanie giggled, "We'll be home in fifteen minutes Paul, we can call them then."

"I'm not waiting," Paul insisted as he called his parent's home number. "Give me the keys then, I'll drive," Stephanie said with a smile as he waited for a response on the other end of the phone. She took the car keys and a minute later they both got into the car. As Stephanie drove she listened to Paul babbling away excitedly on the phone to each of his parents in turn. She loved how devoted he was to their child. It was often all they would talk about, things that they would do with the baby both as an infant and later in it's life, things they could buy for the baby, places they could take the child on holiday. He had already thought of almost everything way ahead of time and making plans with him was what Stephanie enjoyed most in life right now.

Secretly Stephanie worried about whether she could be as good a parent as it seemed that Paul would be. It made her a little nervous but she knew that she would do her best and that was all she could do. The baby would definitely have parents who loved it and would stop at nothing to make the best life possible for it. Of that there was doubt at all in either of their minds.

Almost twenty minutes later Stephanie pulled the car into a driveway and after killing the engine she got out of the car. Shielding her eyes against the bright sunlight she stared at the house as Paul also got out. "I still can't believe this is our home Paul. Every time I look at it I just... I don't know," she said almost in awe.

Paul joined his girlfriend in looking at the four bedroom three story colonial house with it's dormer roof and garage attached to one side, "I know, it's amazing. What I can't believe is how good your folks were with the money. I expected them to say that we didn't need a place this big for our first home but instead they bought it for us and they won't let us pay them anything back until at least after the baby is born."

"I know, we're so lucky. I simply adore this place and don't worry about it being too big, our family will grow into it, "Stephanie beamed.

They both walked towards the house and as they did so Paul put an arm around Stephanie's shoulders. "Thank you for making me so happy Paul," she said softly.

Paul placed a kiss on her cheek, "I love you. Both of you."

Stephanie's heart melted as she watched her husband unlock the door to their house. The words he had just spoken brought tears to her eyes.

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><p>Fifteen minutes had passed as Paul sat watching the screen, holding Stephanie's hand tightly as he did so and listening to the nurse or doctor, he wasn't sure what she was as he had been too hyped to pay attention properly when she had introduced herself. What mattered was what she was saying. She was telling them that their baby was healthy and progressing well and that she had checked the limbs and organs and that they were all fine. She was talking about the possibility of giving them a due date. Then he heard the question he had been waiting for, "Would you like to know the gender of the baby?"<p>

Stephanie looked at her boyfriend and the excitement was written all over his face, clearly somehow even surpassing her own. She nodded and smiled to herself at the anticipation in his voice when he spoke, "Yes. Yes please."

A few moments dragged by as the doctor tried to get the best image possible before she said, "There. Have a look at that."

She pointed and Stephanie giggled at what she saw. Simultaneously Paul's mouth dropped open a little and then a huge smile appeared on his face. There was only one thing he could possibly be looking at right now. The doctor confirmed, "Paul, Stephanie, your baby is a boy."

Suddenly the emotions began to get too much for Stephanie and she covered her mouth with a hand as tears filled her eyes. Paul looked at her in wonder and spoke quietly, "A son. We're going to have a son. Oh my god. I love you."

"I love you too," Stephanie almost whispered after removing the hand from her mouth, "A baby boy."

"Would you like a picture of the scan to take home?" The doctor had asked.

"Yes. Yes of course," Paul confirmed eagerly as he tried to get himself under control. He had never felt anything like this in his life, such joy as this would be impossible for him to describe to anyone. Now all of the imaginary future plans could be thought about in more detail. All of the amazing things he would do with his son. It was at that moment that he decided that he would ask Stephanie to marry him. He was not sure when or how but he knew that he was going to do it. She was the woman of his dreams and she was going to be the mother of his son.

As they walked hand in hand through the huge automatic doors of the hospital entrance not long afterwards Stephanie was telling Paul that very soon her bump would be noticeable even in her dresses that she was wearing on TV and that the news would go public. It would soon be time for her to stop her TV appearances and restrict herself to her desk job only which she had to admit she was not particularly happy about but it was necessary.

Paul pulled her into an unexpected hug and spoke quietly into her ear, "You're still happy with the name we said we liked if we had a boy?"

"Yes," Stephanie said as she returned the hug, "You're going to call your parents and tell them aren't you?"

With a grin on his face Paul released the hug and took out his phone, "You bet I am. I can't wait to tell them they will have a Grandson. They'll be so happy and they'll love the name too."

Stephanie took her boyfriends huge hand as he waited for the call to connect and they resumed their walk towards the parking lot. "We're halfway there Keegan Levesque," she informed her baby quietly and with pride.


End file.
